Remnants of the Ghost King
"Who's there?!" Reacting solely by his instincts, Jun Meng Chen whirled behind him, only to find nobody there.
"Who…domain…dare?"
The faint voice echoed in the narrow corridor, and Jun Meng Chen felt the same sensation once again. One of being spied upon, as if someone was directly behind him.
"Who…domain…dare?"
The voice repeated once more, this time from Jun Meng Chen's right. Fiercely turning around, a dagger firmly grasped in his left hand, Jun Meng Chen attempted to locate the source. That a presence couldn't be detected even with his perception inundating the corridor was rather unsettling.
The voice was fleeting and hoarse, and from listening to the fragmented speech, Jun Meng Chen deducted the speaker to be quite elderly. It was just that he didn't know why the voice was fragmented or why he was hearing it directly behind him, and Jun Meng Chen immediately rushed towards the exit of the hallway.
Swiftly navigating through the winding corridors and hallways, guided by his memory, Jun Meng Chen soon stood before a set of wooden doors, with elegant carvings of roses and begonia leaves. Giving little regard about why the set of doors existed in the mansion whilst he had found none since he entered, Jun Meng Chen infused divine essence into his right foot. Bursting the doors open with a single powerful kick, he rushed out onto the wide, open street.
As expected, immortal constructs were strewn onto the ground like candy. Most were damaged and unrecognizable had it not been for the faintest fluctuations of divine essence. However, Jun Meng Chen noted with curiosity that he was not alone on the street.
A plethora of ghosts were feasting on the nearby constructs, something that was not present when he explored the road the previous time.
Bang!
The doors of the mansion slammed shut, startling Jun Meng Chen. As he gazed at the mansion's main gates close before him, Jun Meng Chen gave a start before a chill ran down his spine.
There had not been an entrance gate to the mansion when he had first encountered it, nor a set of wooden doors. Just when did them appear? Or was this perhaps another entrance?
"Who…domain…dare?"
The mysterious, aged voice rasped behind Jun Meng Chen for the third time. His pupils constricting, Jun Meng Chen whirled towards his back to find an old man gazing blankly towards the sky.
Dressed in a light grey robe, the old man sported a ragged beard with a bald head. As his fingers tremblingly stroked his beard, the man repeated once more.
"Who…domain…dare?"
Curious, Jun Meng Chen gazed at the old man mutter nonsensically to himself. Carefully muffling his steps to observe from a distance, Jun Meng Chen left behind a weak thread of divine essence as he walked away. As he got further, the old man's words traveled through the thread of divine essence and projected before his ear.
"My…ruined... All ruined…"
The broken words of the old man confused Jun Meng Chen. What was ruined? His immortal construct, or something else?
Infusing divine essence into his eyes to actively perceive the fluctuating undercurrents of the world before him, Jun Meng Chen was given quite the scare when he attempted to examine the old man trapped in a mental haze, standing in the middle of the street.
The old man didn't have an immortal's construct, as if he were some ordinary mortal who had suffered from a delusion. Not to mention, a simple glance at the body revealed terribly distorted meridians, blood veins, and the heart alongside of its arteries had been twisted akin to a bowstring.
However, when Jun Meng Chen thoroughly examined the old man's soul, he noticed something peculiar.
The old man's soul was a pale-blue cluster of light, lacking any traces of divine essence or a fundamental construct. At periodic intervals, Jun Meng Chen could even see a small crystal orb flicker within the cluster, which confused him even further.
If the orb was the actual soul of the old man, such wan flickering would ultimately lead to an indefinite slumber. Just how was he still standing, mumbling incoherently with his raspy voice?
"You again…dare you! Return…life!"
Just then, the old man groaned, his body swaying as his aged and broken voice displayed hints of anger. As Jun Meng Chen watched, the old man's body trembled before a dark mist escaped from him.
Once the mist had left his body, the old man suddenly relaxed, and Jun Meng Chen felt a cold trickle flow down his neck. His senses tingling with danger, Jun Meng Chen retracted the thread of divine essence with haste.
"Three…no, four. Four have entered…" the old man rasped once more. However, the removal of the mist allowed for Jun Meng Chen to hear his words more coherently, and he inched closer to hear the man speak.
"To think they returned with such anger…has the Divine Palace found out?" the old man whispered, his elderly and thin frame reflecting a deep solitude and weariness. "And I was so close, so close! If only…I had another century…" he spoke.
For some reason, Jun Meng Chen felt an unknown anger well within him. He did not know why, but the urge to attack and destroy the man stoked and blazed by itself, perplexing Jun Meng Chen.
"Immortality…immortality…" the old man whispered. Without any preemptive warning or time allotted to Jun Meng Chen to react, the old man suddenly turned in his direction, the raspy voice accompanied by an eerie tone.
Hidden behind a nearby building, Jun Meng Chen could only see the side of the old man.
"One of them…is here! How dare you, to transgress on my domain!!"
Seeing the old man's lips move, Jun Meng Chen strained his ears to eavesdrop after recalling his probing thread of divine essence. However, it turned out to have not been needed at all, for the old man's whisper evolved into an enraged howl.
"Since you've come without paying greetings, don't think about leaving!"
With a fierce howl, the old man appeared directly before Jun Meng Chen, the wizened, ancient palm grasping for Jun Meng Chen's neck. Before his eyes had even registered the old man's presence, Jun Meng Chen's right leg had already kicked at the wall, propelling him to the left and barely evading the old man's vice grip.
Fiercely backpedaling, Jun Meng Chen conjured a set of snow-white daggers, forgoing his customary steel sword.
Just from how the old man had successfully ambushed him, Jun Meng Chen was well aware that a longsword would instantly consign him to a massive disadvantage if he attempted to combat the old man. The longsword indeed far surpassed a dagger in striking strength and allowed for a far easier impetus in wide-arc swings, but given the old man's sheer speed, a longsword would instead handicap Jun Meng Chen.
The daggers appeared to be made of snow, without a single blemish on its surface, be it blade or hilt. With a rectangular handle guard with the edges curved, the daggers were a total of one and a half chi in length. When grasping the hilts, they were slightly cool to the touch, instantly sobering Jun Meng Chen from his earlier daze.
The old man lightly snorted, instantly appearing before Jun Meng Chen once more. Reacting purely by instinct, Jun Meng Chen crossed his wrists before his chest, sliding and locking the dagger blades against each other in reverse grips, the right before the left.
Imbuing divine essence into his wrists and feet, and sliding his right foot back by a step, the dagger blades released a scarlet light, almost imperceptible in the monochrome world.
Clang!
A wizened palm firmly struck the locked dagger blades, the impulse and linear momentum of the strike fully transferring to Jun Meng Chen and causing him to stagger. The blow was far too heavy, with his fists striking heavily onto his own chest from the sheer weight behind the strike.
However, Jun Meng Chen's guarding technique was not fully dispelled, and he slightly bent his knees as his muscles and joints distributed the momentum onto the ground. Taking advantage of his fists recoiling after thudding against his own chest, Jun Meng Chen quickly reverted his grip on the daggers before slashing towards his sides, leaning forwards to maximize the distance covered.
"Oh?"
Lightly musing, the old man nimbly leaped backwards, and Jun Meng Chen's counterattack barely grazed the tip of his robes. Dusting off his right palm and craning downwards to check his damaged robe, the old man smiled.
"Not bad of a defensive technique!" he spoke. "A bit on the finesse style, but for someone who is not even ten thousand years in age, very good indeed. This elder is proud of the Divine Palace's talents."
Hearing the old man's words, Jun Meng Chen's eyes narrowed as he gazed at the old man with a guarded look. Merely his tone when mentioning the Divine Palace was enough for Jun Meng Chen to guess that the old man before him was either someone unrelated to the Divine Palace, or one of its elders.
He just didn't know if it was the Ghost King rumored to have perished, as Jun Meng Chen had never seen his portrait before. Maintaining a respectable distance between him and the old man, Jun Meng Chen didn't lower his guard when he inquired.
"May I ask who this elder is? Do you know anything regarding what transpired in this place?"
"Who I am? Huh. Did they not inform you who I was when you entered my domain?"
Hearing Jun Meng Chen's question, the old man displayed a disheartened expression, as if his expressions had been let down. Although his response was spoken in a casual manner, the contents were enough to cause Jun Meng Chen to worry.
"If I only had a few more, just a few more, I wouldn't have had to worry about that old fool's prophecy…oh well. This old man still has some time left. The older fellows, I can't help but ignore, but the two younglings here…I'll just make do with you!"
Softly muttering to himself, the Ghost King rubbed his beard before carefully scrutinizing Jun Meng Chen with narrowed eyes, an unsettling gleam in his eyes. Though he couldn't exactly hear the old man's quiet murmuring, Jun Meng Chen was instantly alarmed by the odd gaze he received.
The white daggers grasped in a reverse grip and poised before his chest, Jun Meng Chen carefully watched every move of the Ghost King.
"…not running? That's quite interesting, although it makes things much easier as well."
Raising his eyebrow at Jun Meng Chen, the Ghost King released a toothy smile, barely hiding his glee. Spreading his arms to his sides, the old man released a sharp howl, an unknown strength surging within, billowing his robe and causing his beard to flutter.
Jun Meng Chen felt a sudden spike of danger strike his senses and struck out with his daggers, utilizing the
"Come! Come, for this King calls thee!"
With the Ghost King's cry, Jun Meng Chen heard a shrill scream echo throughout the entire domain. The ground and air vibrated as numerous, countless ghosts streamed towards the old man, completely rendering him invisible under the enormous screen of ghosts. As each ghost was assimilated by the old man, Jun Meng Chen could feel the aura emanating from the Ghost King become denser and more imposing, evil and sinister intent sweeping forth.
Suddenly, the screen of ghosts morphed into a menacing black mist covering the Ghost King and Jun Meng Chen. With visibility crippled, unable to see beyond his hands, Jun Meng Chen quickly inundated his body with divine essence. Just then, the Ghost King's snide voice resounded from all directions, accompanied by a fierce palm strike to the back.
"Keke, little junior, just let yourself be painlessly devoured like the rest. Although this elder is indeed nothing but a remnant of my true self, it is far more than capable in contending against a spiritual core!"