Legend of the Great Sage

ng silhouettes, casting darkness that was even darker than darkness on the darkness.

Black, shadow-like vegetation grew around the Myriad Poison Ancestor.
They were densely-packed with huge buds atop their thin stalks.
The numerous buds bloomed at the same time, but they did not bloom flowers, but multiple gaping mouths.
They spoke together.

“Myriad Poison, why aren’t you enjoying yourself in the south? What brings you to my Shadow palace?” Every single voice was sharp and ear-splitting, layering together in the thousands.
It was enough for people to voluntarily deafen themselves just to avoid hearing the horrible sound.

Even the Myriad Poison Ancestor became slightly restless inside.
He composed himself.
“I want you to kill someone for me, fellow!”

“Oh? A person that I can kill, but you can’t! You should know that the Shadow palace never assassinates targets beyond the third heavenly tribulation, whether it’s humans, daemons, or otherfolk, or half-human, half-daemons, half-human, half-otherfolk, or half-otherfolk, half-daemons!”

The Shadow Queen spoke extremely quickly.
The shadow formed three lines in the air, and each stroke changed into the silhouette of a human, daemon, and otherfolk before rapidly interweaving and forming so-called half-human, half-daemons, and so on.

“No, not the third heavenly tribulation.
The second heavenly tribulation!”

“Oh! That’s interesting.
Name?”

“Li Qingshan!” The Myriad Poison Ancestor struggled to hide his resentment.

“The King of Savages, Li Qingshan… Declined! Please return!” The Shadow Queen seemed to consider it before declining resolutely.
The shadow in the air formed a cross before drifting away.

“Wait, you haven’t heard the remuneration yet!” The Myriad Poison Ancestor took a step forward and extended his hand.

The shadow plants suddenly merged into a colossal shadow monster, blocking the Myriad Poison Ancestor’s path.
It roared, “Did the King of Southern Yue send you? Is he trying to drag the night roamers into the war between humans? Go back and tell him to forget about it! I bless him forever and ever, to be beheaded by his own clansmen!”

“No, this has nothing to do with the King of Southern Yue, or the Mist province and the Green province.
This is my personal matter.” The Myriad Poison Ancestor hesitated before finally explaining his grievance with Li Qingshan.
To him, this was a matter of burning shame that he struggled to mention.

The shadow monster laughed from time to time before saying at the end, “Infiltrating the Myriad Poison cult and killing people…”

“I suspect it to be the handiwork of that Ghost Shadow of Savage mountain!”

“Hehe, you’re talking about that child! I’ve let him catch some rest.
It’s time for him to come back and continue working.
Thank you for informing me about him.
I will bring him back.
Night roamers shouldn’t be serving humans, but I don’t think he’s capable of something like that!”

“Once you kill Li Qingshan, I’ll bear all the consequences.
I’ll declare that I was behind it.
If you don’t believe me, I can swear a poisonous oath and take complete responsibility for this.
You’ll obtain three arcane treasures at the very least.
There will also be a tremendous amount of resources in return,” the Myriad Poison Ancestor said resolutely.

The “poisonous oath” he mentioned was not an empty oath that mortals spouted.
Instead, it was a binding oath of great power, but unlike the Blood Oath Scroll, it had to be sworn from the bottom of the heart.

After a moment of silence, the shadow monster receded and turned into a blurry figure.
It sat in front of the Myriad Poison Ancestor, leaning against its slender arms.
“Alright, let’s talk about the remuneration!”

Quite a while later, the thick darkness receded like the tide.
The jungle turned back to normal.

The Myriad Poison Ancestor looked around.
Even until now, he had not grasped the Shadow Queen’s location.

A brilliant moon hung in the sky, and from the branch of a huge tree, a pair of deep-blue eyes watched the Myriad Poison Ancestor fly away.
She fiddled around with a dark-green sphere that resembled a tumour and smiled gently.

“Heh, he’s even offered up the treasure of his cult.
This hatred sure runs deep!”