Gateway of Immortality-Chapter 960: The Black Shell Talisman

Qin Sang’s expression shifted slightly, his figure flickering as he slipped into the jungle. Unexpectedly, the approaching evasion light also flashed and seemed to have discovered Qin Sang’s trail, diving into the jungle after him.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Two figures burst out of the mountain forest one after the other, confronting each other in mid-air.

Qin Sang’s gaze darkened as he secretly summoned the ebony sword, staring fixedly at the figure ahead. The newcomer appeared to be a handsome young man, bearing an ethereal air. His long hair was gathered with a silk ribbon of unknown material and fell loosely down his back.

His pupils, however, were a strange azure color. As his gaze shifted, they gleamed with an uncanny, almost bewitching light.

"Daoist, you are finally here. You are rather late, we have been waiting for some time. Fortunately, you have not delayed the great matter. Had you been later, the great king might have punished you." The long-haired youth looked Qin Sang up and down, his eyes turning as he smiled faintly.

Qin Sang was taken aback. He had sensed someone closing in, thought it another battle among cultivators, and immediately hidden in the jungle to avoid being dragged in. To his surprise, this youth had easily uncovered him, forcing him into the open.

After confirming that there were no pursuers behind the youth, Qin Sang’s sense of foreboding intensified. He suspected the man might be intending to kill for treasure. Yet he did not panic.

The youth’s revealed cultivation was strong, at least the late stage of the Core Formation Realm. But as long as he was not a Spiritual Infant grandmaster, Qin Sang was confident he would not lose. He had already activated the Heavenly Demon Transformation and secretly summoned the ebony sword, prepared to strike first. Unexpectedly, he heard such words instead.

"You have mistaken me for someone else," Qin Sang replied coldly, narrowing his eyes.

The youth shook his head repeatedly, certainty all over his face. "Impossible. The demonic qi on your body cannot be faked. Human cultivators who take the Malevolent Demonic Pill, refined from the bodies of my demon race brethren, indeed carry faint demonic qi. But that qi differs from ours, and only our kind can tell the difference. Even without a token, Daoist, can you not sense it? Your demonic qi is just as pure as mine."

Demon race? At these words, Qin Sang was shaken, waves crashing in his heart as his body tensed.

For demons, transforming into human form varied depending on species and cultivation realm, but at the earliest it required breaking through to the Transformation Realm. That was the very origin of the realm’s name.

This man appears no different from an ordinary human, yet claims to be of the demon race. Is he a Transformation Realm great demon? Qin Sang stared hard at him, thoughts racing.

He should not be a demonic beast from the Demonic Sea. The teleportation arrays between the seas were controlled by both races and guarded by Spiritual Infant cultivators. A Transformation Realm great demon could not possibly slip through to wreak havoc in their core territory.

But Canglang Sea, though dominated by immortal cultivators, was also filled with countless demonic beasts. Especially in the Rain Desert of the North Sea, where humans rarely ventured, many beasts lurked in hiding. It was not strange for a Transformation Realm great demon to appear.

But who would have thought one would dare enter Seven-Kill Hall itself, unafraid of being discovered and besieged by cultivators of both races?

It seemed this youth had mistaken him for a demonic beast, perhaps due to the Heavenly Demon Transformation. Back in the Demonic Sea, Qin Sang had already noticed that after cultivating the Heavenly Demon Body Refinement, the demonic qi on him grew so dense that even beasts in the tide regarded him as kin and showed far less hostility.

He never expected the qi to be so pure that even a Transformation Realm great demon would be fooled. What unsettled him more was that he sensed no trace of a great demon’s oppressive aura from this man. By all appearances, he was merely a late-stage Core Formation cultivator.

This meant his cultivation was even more terrifying than imagined, his ability to conceal himself perfect.

And the "great king" he spoke of, what kind of being could that be? The thought startled Qin Sang. Could there be other top-level existences hidden in Seven-Kill Hall?

He dared not make the slightest false move. If his disguise was pierced, he would die without a grave. Inside the Corpse Puppet Pouch, Bai also tensed, not daring to move. His expression flickered, cursing silently in his heart. This man is nothing but a calamity! A star of misfortune!

Bai deeply regretted ever choosing to travel with him. Suppressing his unease, Qin Sang carefully measured his tone and asked, "Where is your token?"

The youth sighed lightly. "In a foreign land, it is natural to be cautious. Daoist, why not take out your Black Shell Talisman and see for yourself?"

As he spoke, he drew something from his waist and showed it to Qin Sang. It was palm-sized, a tortoise shell plaque made from the shell of a Black Tortoise. Natural lines covered its front, while engraved runes adorned the back.

At the sight of it, Qin Sang felt a sudden sense of familiarity. He immediately recalled where he had seen such a thing. Inside the Thousand-Jin Ring, he too had a tortoise shell plaque!

The first time he entered Seven-Kill Hall, guided by the bone flute’s resonance, he had tracked down a hooked-nose man. After killing him, Qin Sang not only obtained the flute and a star turban, but also this tortoise shell plaque.

At the time, he had tried several times but failed to activate the runes upon it. The aura he sensed from the plaque did not seem human, so he had treated it as a strange treasure and put it away. Now this youth held a similar one and called it the Black Shell Talisman.

Could the hooked-nose cultivator he killed have been connected to this great demon? Yet the demon had not sought vengeance, and even addressed him as "Daoist." This strange behavior baffled Qin Sang.

As Qin Sang pondered, the youth tapped in the air, quickly sketching a few runes that he struck into the talisman. The runes sank in and vanished.

In the next instant, azure light burst from the talisman, and a thumb-sized image of a Jiao emerged, swimming within the shell. At the same time, the talisman in Qin Sang’s Thousand-Jin Ring stirred restlessly.

He quickly drew it out, only to see the same change appear upon his talisman. Two tiny Jiao seemed to sense each other, straining to break free of their constraints and fly toward one another.

"So, you are from the Jade Pigeon Clan! Luckily you stayed your hand, or even I, though of the Jiao blood, would not dare rashly touch the poison of the Jade Pigeons. You also carry the aura of the Azure Luan; do you perhaps possess a trace of Azure Luan bloodline? A rare descendant indeed. Who would have thought the Jade Pigeons would send you forth? When I traveled through Canglang Sea, I called myself Yuan Zhu. And how should I address you, Daoist?"

To Qin Sang, the souls within the two talismans appeared identical. Yet somehow, this youth distinguished them and smiled faintly as he spoke.

"With the Black Shell Talisman in hand, you should feel assured now, should you not?" he added.

Qin Sang stared at the talisman in his palm, a lingering sense of wrongness in his heart. Especially when he heard the youth claim he came from the Jade Pigeon Clan, Qin Sang recalled how the hooked-nose man had sprouted light wings and released a cloud of azure poison smoke at his death.

After a brief silence, Qin Sang put away the talisman, covertly scrutinizing the youth. Then he spoke, "So it's Daoist Yuan Zhu. I have taken the Dharma name Ming Yue. Besides you, which other Daoists have arrived?"