Chapter 160: Soul Gathering Pool

  Cloudy Island. At dusk, clusters of fiery clouds stuck in the sky, and the afterglow of sunset shone on the fire clouds, with a radiant glow of millions of feet.

  The entire Cloud and Mist Island was shrouded in a fiery glow, with the sunset's afterglow making the scenery even more beautiful. On Cloud and Mist Island, there were many maple leaves, also fiery red, which looked even more enchanting in the glow of the clouds.

  Yunxia Island has a unique landscape. At dusk, the fiery clouds in the sky and the maple leaves on the island complement each other, making it breathtakingly beautiful.

  On the island, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is also quite extraordinary. There are also three fire crystal mountains on the island.

  Pyropex is a material for refining divine weapons, with fire attributes. If high-quality pyropex is infused into a weapon, the weapon will have fire attributes. When combined with some fire-attribute crystals, it can form a powerful instrument carrying intense heat. The Gu family's martial arts are mostly related to swords, and the Gu family's masters all wield swords. On the Gu family's Wanjian Peak, various precious swords are inserted everywhere, and some of these precious swords even have spiritual qualities.

  Many masters of the ancient family were skilled in swordsmanship, and swordsmanship often required various rare materials. Firestone was one of the scarce materials for refining fire-attribute treasure swords. When the ancient family discovered that Yunxia Island had firestone, they also spent a lot of effort to sweep away the martial forces stationed on the island, only then did they obtain this island. A year ago, Yang's Shura King Mo Duanhun brought 30 Shura Blood Guards and descended upon Yunxia Island.

  In just half a day, all the defensive measures of the Gu family on Yunxia Island were destroyed, and the people of the Gu family on the island were also killed by the Shura Blood Guard. The forces related to the Gu family were uprooted by the Shura Blood Guard. A year has passed, and although Yunxia Island has returned to the hands of the Gu family, the defense of the island has not been rebuilt yet.

  Fortunately, the Yang family, due to the recent movements of the Fourth ***, has been attacking the Gu and Dongfang families' powers from all sides. They quietly withdrew their troops from Galo Sea, taking advantage of the opportunity, the Gu family proposed a peace talk. The Yang family agreed to it as they were busy dealing with the Fourth ***'s demonic people, and prepared to come to Yunxia Island to sign the details.

  Yunxia Island, at the foot of the largest Fire Spirit Stone Mountain, stood a stone building surrounded by maple trees, their fiery red leaves encircling the complex, turning this place into a sea of red maple leaves. On top of a 50-meter-tall giant stone tower, Gu Jian Ge and Gu Lie stood shoulder to shoulder, gazing out at the distance.

  Radiant halos, the red glow of the Buddha's sky, beams of crimson light, shot from outside the heavens. Fell into the pagoda, on the ground in the tower, pulled into strips of red lines.

  As the sun slowly sets into the sea, a peregrine falcon comes from afar, breaking through the wind at an extremely fast speed.

  The letter hawk landed directly in front of Gu Lie's stone window, flapping its wings twice before stopping. Gu Lie reached out and took the letter from the hawk's body, furrowing his brow as he read the contents, his expression growing increasingly unsightly. As a cultivator with a Double Heaven Realm cultivation base, Gu Lie held an extraordinary position in the ancient Gu family. This time, the struggle between the Gu and Yang families had arisen due to Gu Jian Ge, so Gu Lie was responsible for handling it.

  Yang's family repeatedly provoked and killed many masters on several islands of the Gu family. Due to the loss of the family, the head of the Gu family was very angry. He attributed the responsibility to Gu Jian Ge, and also dissatisfied with Gu Lie, which made Gu Lie very depressed. When handling matters with the Yang family, he was always very careful, fearing that there would be more problems in that aspect.

  "Dad, what's going on?" Gu Jian Ge took a step forward and leaned in towards the letter.

  Gu Lie's face sank, and he directly handed the letter to Gu Jian Ge, angrily saying: "The Yang family is truly greedy, actually wanting us to really give up five islands before they agree to calm down this matter."

  "Five islands?!" Gu Jian Ge's face changed, and he hastily looked at the contents of the letter, his eyes widening in shock as he exclaimed: "Yunxia Island, Xuankui Island, Ti Lang Island, Hulu Island, Di Xia Island! These five islands... either have a spiritual arena or produce spiritual medicine. Each island was obtained by our Gu family after expending great effort, and yet the Yang family is brazenly asking for all five islands at once!"

  Gu Lei's expression turned gloomy, and he sighed: "The family will never allow it. These five islands are too precious, they definitely won't be ceded to the Yang family. But if we can't come to an agreement with the Yang family, those above will blame me for being incompetent... this matter is really difficult to handle..."

  "Dad, last time we were at Jihu Pond, that demon seemed... seemed to want...", Gujian Ge's face was somewhat gloomy, gritted his teeth and said: "Since the Yang family is too much, we might as well go all out, agree to the demon's conditions, let the people who came to Yunxia Island stay here forever..."

  "The Demon" Gu Lie's expression changed, but he hesitated, "Although we don't get along with the Yang family, if it involves the Demon, once things are exposed, we will definitely be criticized by others. At that time, other families may also despise our actions and even accuse us of being despicable."

  "As long as the Yang family is completely annihilated, who will know it was our doing?" Gu Jian Ge pondered for a moment and advised, "Father, times have changed. Nowadays, for the sake of interests, we can cooperate with anyone. As far as I know, in the Endless Ocean, there are people cooperating with the Underworlders from the Seventh Realm of the Underworld. If it serves our purpose, sometimes being flexible is not impossible."

  "It's likely to be Mo Duanhun." Gu Lie furrowed his brow, "As the leader of the three great Asura Kings, Mo Duanhun has earth-shaking power. Unless a divine mirror-level demon takes action, no one can stop him. If Mo Duanhun escapes and finds out we helped the demon, you and I may not be able to stay in the Gu household anymore."

  "This time, if we lose, Father's position in the family will also be greatly reduced. The family will definitely not allow us to cede the five islands, and the Yang family's arrogance is notorious, we can't please both sides at all. If Mo Duanhun is killed by the demon, we can push it all away cleanly, and when the time comes, the Yang family will be in chaos, I'm afraid they won't even have the energy to continue making trouble. Father, think carefully about this."

  "Let's go to Jihun Spring."

  "Uh-huh."

  In the south of Yunxia Island, there is a secluded valley, and in the center of the valley, there is a deep pool.

  The water pool is shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere, with a dark and murky aura hovering above the surface of the water like ink. The surrounding area is covered with soul-summoning flags that completely envelop the pool. Inside the pool, ghostly faces and wandering spirits appear on the surface of the water, making this pool seem like a mysterious mirror that seals innumerable evil spirits and ghosts.

  Legend has it that Yunxia Island was once plagued by a great disaster, where everyone on the island was slaughtered. After those people died, their souls were drawn to some kind of power and did not disperse immediately, but instead gathered in the waters of this valley.

  Inside the Shui Tang, countless ghosts are filled, those ghosts have been swimming on the water surface all the time, and will suddenly pop up and sway from time to time.

  In those years, Yunxia Island had an evil martial arts sect that made the Soul Gathering Pool a sacred place and practiced nearby. The Gu family sent out their top masters to obtain ownership of Yunxia Island, exterminating the evil martial arts sect and causing all the souls of its martial artists to fall into the Soul Gathering Pool.

  After Gu Jia obtained Yunxia Island, he had a deep understanding of the Soul Gathering Pool from the records of the extinct evil sect. He knew that the Soul Gathering Pool could connect to the Seven Layers of Hell and the Fourth Dimension, but it was different from the Heavenly Gate. The Heavenly Gate allowed people from the Endless Sea to enter the Seven Layers of Hell and the Fourth Dimension, while the Soul Gathering Pool did not have this effect. The Soul Gathering Pool could only allow some powerful individuals from the Seven Layers of Hell and the Fourth Dimension to appear on the surface of the pool water through soul penetration.

  In those years, Gu's family tried to destroy the Soul Gathering Pool. When they were about to take action, they found that a demon's soul appeared in the pool. The demon emerged from the surface of the pool and asked to cooperate with Gu's family, asking them to follow their secret method to inject various kinds of living spirits into the Soul Gathering Pool, attempting to bring souls directly from the Seventh Underworld and the Fourth... to the Endless Sea through the Soul Gathering Pool.

  However, the Seven Hells and the Three Gods Sect have never been on good terms. The Three Gods Sect has entered the Seven Hells through the Heavenly Gate multiple times, gaining enormous benefits from the Seven Hells, but also becoming sworn enemies with the Seven Hells. The Gu family and the Three Gods Sect are allies, so they naturally do not want to help the people of the Seven Hells deal with the Three Gods Sect. Therefore, the Gu family not only did not respond to the requests of the people of the Seven Hells and the demons, but also sealed off the Soul Gathering Pool with a powerful formation. They used various powers to conceal the Soul Gathering Pool, preventing anyone from knowing anything about it. In the past, when deciding whether or not to destroy the Soul Gathering Pool, the Gu family had a fierce debate. In the end, for reasons unknown - perhaps to guard against future conflicts with the Three Gods Sect, or perhaps for other reasons - the Gu family decided to leave the Soul Gathering Pool intact. However, they also took control of all secrets related to the Soul Gathering Pool.

  The various restrictions surrounding the Soul Gathering Pool were also set up by the top masters of the ancient family, and unless one of the fifteen major powers' experts in array techniques happened to arrive, it would be difficult for anyone to know everything here.

  Last time Mo Duan's soul was washed away by the Blood Cloud Island, he rode on the Qingxue Demon Bat and wandered around the Cloud and Mist Island, and also released his divine sense to search for the warriors and spiritual creatures on the Cloud and Mist Island, but still couldn't find the Soul Gathering Pool.

  The secrecy of Jusoul Pond can be seen from this.

  Gu Lie and Gu Jian Ge, father and son, quietly left the tower and evaded some of the Gu family's guards, going to Ju Hun Tan.

  The two arrived at the eerie Soul Gathering Pool, where Gu Lao used a secret method to lift the seal and came to the surface of the pool, releasing a divine sense onto a black light ball in the center of the pool.

  That cluster of black light balls is the entanglement of countless living spirits, and these human souls are merged together to reveal a hideous ghost face on the surface of the black light ball.

  A strand of Gu Lao's divine consciousness flew in and landed on the black light ball, which soon sank into the Soul Gathering Pool.

  In ten minutes, the water in the Soul Gathering Pool was boiling and churning, stirring up a terrifying storm. The dark pool water rose higher and higher, forming a pitch-black, ink-like figure with six sharp horns on its head, three meters tall, with an indistinct appearance like that of a demon.

  One month later, Mo Duanhun, the first of the three great Asura Kings of the endless sea Yang family, will come here.

  "When the time comes, I can open the Soul Gathering Pool. Can you seize the opportunity to keep Mo Duanhun and Xiuluo Blood Guard here?" Gu Lie said straightforwardly without any nonsense.

  "Don't lose your soul?" The demon's eyes gleamed with excitement, his body swaying back and forth like the rippling water as he let out a shrill, menacing laugh: "You've come at just the right time! How wonderful!"

  The end