Chapter 1326: A Flock of Scarlet Hunting Eagles, a Swarm of Scorpion Emperors

Yun Ji looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

Yuan Gang looked toward Niu Youdao.

Niu Youdao gave a wry smile. "Monkey's judgment should be right. As for why, I'll explain it slowly later. Let's deal with what's in front of us first."

At those words, Yun Ji suddenly seemed to remember something. She flashed upward, plunged straight into the sand, and vanished underground.

Yuan Gang immediately grew somewhat wary. "What is she doing?"

Niu Youdao smiled faintly. "She's checking whether the exit from the Fifth Domain is still there. It's worth confirming."

Yuan Gang understood. He took the canteen from his waist again, pulled out the stopper, and handed it to Niu Youdao.

The two waited for a while.

Then the ground burst apart and Yun Ji emerged from beneath the sand, drifting down beside them. Her expression was grave. "The exit is gone. Looks like my judgment was right. The passage into the Fifth Domain is different from those leading to places like the Butterfly Dream Illusory Realm. The entrance to this place should move beneath the Boundless Desert rather than remaining fixed in one location."

Niu Youdao gave a slight nod. "Not unexpected. Otherwise, the Demon Canon wouldn't say a guiding object is required to enter the Fifth Domain. The Scorpion Emperor really is the guiding object. It must be able to sense the location of the entrance and exit."

Yun Ji looked around. "What's in the Fifth Domain?"

"I don't know. The Demon Canon only says this place contains the means to close the passages linking the various domains to the mortal world. Wu Chang has the Demon Canon now. To verify whether it's genuine, he should come here sooner or later."

"Apart from Monkey, can Wu Chang find the Scorpion Emperor too?"

"What he knows is limited. He probably hasn't thought of the Scorpion Emperor yet, but the Demon Canon records a method for finding the guiding object. Monkey being able to find the Scorpion Emperor this way isn't part of the method recorded in the Demon Canon, and probably wasn't something Li Ge anticipated either." Niu Youdao paused. "What I find strange now is how Lü Wushuang knew the Scorpion Emperor was the guiding object. Or was that only a coincidence? Did she actually have some other purpose involving it?"

Yun Ji said, "So if we kill the Scorpion Emperor, neither Wu Chang nor Lü Wushuang will be able to enter the Fifth Domain easily?"

The moment she suggested killing it, Yuan Gang turned a cold stare on her.

Niu Youdao shook his head slightly. "We can't kill it. Wu Chang will verify the records in the Demon Canon one by one. If we kill the Scorpion Emperor and he can't find the guiding object, he'll assume the Demon Canon was tampered with. That would create enormous trouble."

"The reason I came here is to get ahead of him and see whether the Fifth Domain contains anything with implications for the situation outside. If it does, then we'll have a real problem. We may have no choice but to find a way to tangle with Wu Chang over it."

Yun Ji and Yuan Gang exchanged a glance.

Yun Ji asked, "Why?"

Niu Youdao flashed down from the Scorpion Emperor's back. He crouched, scooped up a handful of sand, and held it to his nose and mouth to smell it.

The other two jumped down as well and watched.

Finding nothing unusual, Niu Youdao let the sand fall and dusted the grains from his fingers. Only then did he say slowly, "Right now, Wu Chang doesn't know the Scorpion Emperor is the guiding object. Once he comes here and discovers it, he may connect that fact to Lü Wushuang's intentions. And Monkey can control the Scorpion Emperor."

The other two understood immediately.

The reason was simple. It only depended on whether one thought the matter through far enough.

If this place contained anything capable of affecting the outside situation, Wu Chang would certainly want it under his control. In that case, Yuan Gang, who could command the Scorpion Emperor, would become dangerous.

If there was nothing here with such implications, then Wu Chang would be concerned about news of the Demon Canon leaking and would have no reason to make a reckless move against Yuan Gang. Even Yuan Gang bringing Lü Wushuang here would not matter much.

Yuan Gang understood now.

One important purpose of this trip had still been his safety. Master Dao had come ahead of everyone else to learn what was here and know the situation clearly before anything happened.

After confirming that the sand here seemed no different from the sand outside, Niu Youdao flashed back onto the Scorpion Emperor's back and beckoned to the others below. "Let's go."

Yun Ji reached out to give Yuan Gang a hand up, but he ignored the offer. He jumped, caught hold, and climbed up in the blink of an eye, moving every bit as quickly as a monkey.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

Niu Youdao said, "According to the Demon Canon, the guiding object should take us to a raised platform. Try having the Scorpion Emperor lead us there."

"A raised platform?" Yun Ji murmured.

She suddenly shot straight into the sky, climbed to a great height, and surveyed the surroundings. A while later she descended. "I've looked. There isn't any raised platform anywhere around us."

"I don't know whether 'raised platform' is meant literally either."

Yuan Gang immediately moved toward the Scorpion Emperor's head and gave several low roars.

The Scorpion Emperor turned. Once it had adjusted its direction, it suddenly broke into a run and raced across the desert.

This time something was different.

Unlike in the outside world, once it entered the Fifth Domain, the Scorpion Emperor no longer burrowed underground. It simply charged across the open desert.

The sky here was different too.

Every short while, darkness fell briefly. The enormous sphere beside the sun was plainly orbiting it and periodically passing across the light.

None of that affected the Scorpion Emperor's progress.

Along the way there was nothing but boundless desert, with no sign of any other living thing.

Yun Ji suddenly said, "I wonder whether the Scorpion Emperor can still find the exit back."

"That isn't something we need to worry about," Niu Youdao said. "According to the Demon Canon, if the purpose is to sever the connections among the Five Domains, then being trapped in this one place would be useless. Once we come in, we still have to get back out."

As long as he had accounted for it, Yun Ji was satisfied. She nodded and looked down at the Scorpion Emperor beneath them. "This giant thing has incredible stamina. It doesn't seem to get tired at all."

Time clearly passed differently here than in the mortal world.

The sun descended very slowly. A day here was obviously longer than a day outside.

No one knew how long they had traveled when all three, jolting along on the Scorpion Emperor's back, suddenly fixed their eyes ahead.

Something tall had appeared in the distance.

As they drew closer and could make out its shape, Niu Youdao and Yuan Gang could not help looking at each other.

The structure was familiar.

It resembled the kind of "pyramid" they had known in their previous life.

"What's wrong?" Yun Ji noticed their reaction and could not help asking.

Niu Youdao and Yuan Gang were plainly excited. For an instant, both even wondered whether they had somehow returned to the world of their previous life.

Then the sky suddenly darkened again.

They looked up at the sun, saw another eclipse-like event unfolding overhead, and were immediately pulled back from that fantasy.

Once they reached the foot of the raised structure, Yun Ji looked up at it for a while. "This was built by people."

Niu Youdao flashed onto the steps. With a sweep of his hand, he brushed away the sand covering the next tier and tapped the stone with his fingers.

Then he flew upward again and finally landed at the very top, where he stood gazing into the distance without moving.

Yun Ji landed beside him soon afterward and also went still.

Several li ahead lay the edge of the desert. Beyond it stretched an endless expanse of green.

"So Monkey was right after all," she murmured.

Yuan Gang climbed up not long afterward. He stared into the distance and suddenly said, "I wonder whether humans exist in this world."

Yun Ji abruptly raised a hand and patted the square stone at the summit. "There seems to be a fluctuation of the qi of Heaven and Earth. This raised platform feels like a formation."

Niu Youdao turned back.

Seeing the sand covering the top, he swept it away with magic.

A recess appeared beneath it, roughly the size of a palm.

The three leaned over and looked.

The bottom and inner walls of the recess were carved with sunken patterns.

Niu Youdao reached down and ran his fingers over them. "Looks like this is where the Stellar Command Token is placed."

Yun Ji asked, "The former State of Zhao's state-protecting divine artifact, the Stellar Command Token?"

"Mm."

"What happens when the Stellar Command Token is placed here?"

"According to the Demon Canon, only by embedding the Stellar Command Token here can the formation eyes in the other four domains be opened. This platform is the master nexus formation eye of the Five Domains Stellar Grand Formation. You were right: this is a formation."

Shock appeared on Yun Ji's face. "A formation capable of linking several worlds... Just what kind of people were Shang Song and Li Ge? How could cultivators this powerful possibly have existed in the mortal world?"

"I don't know. The 'immortals' people like us call immortals probably don't qualify for the name at all. Perhaps the husband and wife truly came from the legendary Immortal Realm."

Yuan Gang, who had been listening nearby, suddenly turned his head and warned them sharply, "Something's coming!"

The other two looked over.

A huge flock of flying creatures had appeared in the distance.

More precisely, they were Scarlet Hunting Eagles, and they were flying straight toward them.

All three stared for a moment.

Yun Ji blurted, "That many flying mounts? How much money would they be worth if we could take them back? Wait—damn it!"

The flock was enormous, perhaps several hundred Scarlet Hunting Eagles in all.

They suddenly folded into a dive toward the three of them, clearly attacking.

Unlike the domesticated flying mounts outside, these Scarlet Hunting Eagles radiated unmistakable ferocity. They seemed to regard the three people on the summit as prey.

Yun Ji's broad sleeves were already whipping back and forth.

Palm force blasted through the air in rapid succession, every strike lethal.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Dozens of diving Scarlet Hunting Eagles cried out miserably and crashed onto the pyramid's tiers.

Their bodies were too large for the width of the steps. One after another, they rolled down the structure and tumbled all the way toward the desert below.

The rest of the flock realized the small creatures atop the structure were dangerous. Every bird that came close fell.

The remaining Scarlet Hunting Eagles immediately banked away, split to either side, wheeled back into the sky, regrouped, and turned toward the distant green lands from which they had come.

The three watched the flock disappear and looked at one another.

Yun Ji said in astonishment, "Could the flying mounts in the outside world originally have come from here?"

"It's possible," Niu Youdao said. "Perhaps Shang Song and Li Ge brought them out from this place."

Buzz... buzz...

Movement came from the desert below.

The three looked down and saw monstrous shapes breaking through the sand one after another.

More precisely, it was a whole swarm of Scorpion Emperors.

The Scorpion Emperor that had brought them here had already seized one of the fallen Scarlet Hunting Eagles and was tearing into it. Now a swarm of others erupted from the sand and thundered over, immediately piling into the feast and fighting over the Scarlet Hunting Eagles that had fallen onto the desert.

They probably shared the same traits as the sand scorpions of the Boundless Desert: extraordinarily keen smell. The scent of blood had drawn them.

Looking down from above, the three were momentarily dumbfounded.

Niu Youdao stared. "There's more than one Scorpion Emperor?"

Yun Ji did not know whether to laugh or be exasperated. "What kind of joke is that? Only something unique can be called an emperor. These are clearly all on the same level. What 'Scorpion Emperor' is there?" Her expression abruptly changed. "Oh no..."

"Hm?" Niu Youdao looked at her.

Yun Ji pointed below. "Which one is the Scorpion Emperor that brought us here? If we can't tell them apart, how are we supposed to get back?"

The words left all three genuinely stunned.

They had only let their attention wander for a moment.

Below them, the swarm of Scorpion Emperors had already piled together in a chaotic struggle, all of them looking exactly alike.

How were they supposed to tell which one was which?

[End of Chapter 1326]