Critical: Ages Below Critical Chapter 11.1

Chapter 11: Messenger of the Departed Souls


She knows that the 'crucial secret'
she wants is buried in this place.

The island is a world of ice and snow.
The surface of the ocean is brushed white in the chilliness of winter.
The bone-chilling wind wraps remnants of ice and snow as it blows across the land.

“Finally……I am here……”


[West of Aslan Empire – Tiange]


Within the empty palace hall, underneath the black surface of the ground that is as smooth as a mirror, there are constant refractions of light swimming by like the fish from the depths of the ocean. Fleeting. Nether looks at the ground that resembles black crystals with a faint thoughtful smile hanging on his face.

“So worrisome.” Thalia stares at the countless strands of light flowing around beneath them. Standing from the couch and moving down with light steps, she raises her right hand, her fingers hanging naturally. A few s.h.i.+ning pieces of thin threads swim out from her fingertips like fish before diving into the translucent yet bottomless black ground. At a glance, her gaze is filled with a vacant look that is uniquely her. This expression is what terrifies people. Since she was a little girl, this was the expression that appeared in her eyes the first time a she saw a chicken. It is the murkiness of the heavens and earth colliding in a prehistoric blizzard, yet in this boundless vacancy, her gaze is also as sharp as a needle with the ability to detect anything and everything.



The corners of Nether's lip quivers as he scoffs in his heart: “Monster.”

“Before calling me a monster,” the blizzard in Thalia's eyes disperses gradually before her dark, s.h.i.+ning and alluring gaze returns. She flashes a subtle yet charming smile at Nether before lifting a hand to cover her mouth, “You should control your disciple, Shen Yin, first. She's the one that's about to become a monster.”

“What's wrong with Shen Yin?” Nether's gaze sharpens slowly.

“Oh, her,” A few strands of light leaps out from the dark ground and is absorbed quickly into Thalia's fingertips, “At this very moment, she's standing right on the body of the Immortal Lord. This little girl has a much too exaggerated opinion of her own abilities, much too curious. If this goes on, who knows how she's going to die.”

“Who isn't like this?” Nether stands up and wraps his cloak around his body, “Everyone wants to know all the secrets.”

“Of course, how fun, but if you're not careful, you'll pay with your life.” Thalia settles down. The faint smile on her face is still soul stirring; yet it resonates the shadows of a blade.

“You want to pa.s.s on a Red Alarm again? Rest for a while, will you? Just with those names you mentioned before, I'd have to spend much time dealing with them.” Nether turns back. His gaze is as cold as ice.

“I'm not the one giving the Red Alarms so there's no use for you to be unhappy.” Thalia flashes a sharp smile as she meets his gaze head on.

“Say whatever you want since you're the only person who can contact the Silver Priests recently. You're also the only one. I'll be leaving first. About Shen Yin……”

“I'll handle Shen Yin,” Thalia's expressions give out no hints of emotion. A faint smile still grazes her features. “Just in time, 'he' is also on the island. Since Shen Yin wants to know secrets, I will give it to her.”



[West of Aslan Empire - Surrounding waters of Rennes]

The waves are pushed forth by the surging typhoon towards the black cliffs. The explosions of water against the rocks are mixed with countless freezing shards of ice.

In a blink of an eye, it is already winter.


Shen Yin steps onto the island from the boat. Beneath her feet is silver snow. Further down is the frozen dirt of the ground. Shen Yin pulls the silver fox-fur robe tighter against her body as she surveys the land.

She knows that the 'crucial secret' she wants is buried in this place.

The island is a world of ice and snow. The surface of the ocean is brushed white in the chilliness of winter. The bone-chilling wind wraps remnants of ice and snow as it blows across the land.

“Finally……I am here……”

Shen Yin wraps the metal chain from the boat around a rock that looks like a beasts fangs before stabalising herself. Closing her eyes gently, she straightens her arms before her. Golden patterns appear on her hands, as she perceives the soul powers in her immediate surroundings. Soon after, she moves towards the heart of the island that is filled with wind and snow.

An inkling that only gets stronger as it calls out to her; her beat of her heart becomes more and more violent. The excitement of a secret that is about to be exposed fills her entire mind.

Her silhouette disappears in the dense blizzard.

She fails to realize that, a large metamorphic rock behind her seems to be moved as if it was breathing before becoming silent once again.





[West of Aslan Empire - Imperial capital Gelanerte]

When Qi Ling wakes up, dawn has just broken. The clear yet bright morning rays have the greenish tint of ice in the early morning of winter.  Qi Ling huffs before s.h.i.+vering as he crawls out from his blankets. As he pulls on his clothes, he turns to ask Yin Chen who is staring unseeingly out the window: “Yin Chen, we've been here for three days. Where will we be heading now?”

“Probably the Heart in the Imperial Capital. I haven't brought you to meet the Silver Priests officially after bestowing you the seal. Also, since you haven't been to the Heart before, why not report back officially since we're already here.”

“What's the Heart? Sounds impressive.” Qi Ling finishes fiddling with his hands and moves to stand beside Yin Chen. Sneaking a glance at him, he says: “Yin Chen, I feel like I grew taller. Doesn't feel like you're much taller than me anymore.”

Yin Chen turns away coldly and narrows his eyes. A series of crackling sounds follow. However, it's not Qi Ling's mouth that's filled with shards of ice but Yin Chen's tongue being frozen into a large chunk of ice.

“Haha, Yin Chen, I'm smart right? I studied for a long time before I learned how to reflect a person's soul powers,” Qi Ling conveniently drapes an arm over Yin Chen's shoulder and moves closer to his face that resembles a perfect ice sculpture. He flashes a sly smile, “And so, you won't be able to make fun of me anymore.”

A sudden tender smile appears like melting snow onto Yin Chen's frosty face. As if the first moment of a flower blooming, it brings out a quiet but striking beauty. He smiles gently as he replies in his low voice: “Really?”

“Of course……uh, hold on, why can you still speak? Aren't you supposed to be……” When Qi Ling realizes that there is something wrong, he is already rendered immobile. From his feet to his fingertips to his face, everything has been wrapped into a solid chunk of ice, leaving only his dark eyes to blink sadly.

“Do you still think you're all that?” Yin Chen asks with a soft and gentle smile.

Qi Ling's reply is m.u.f.fled and so he can only rolls his large eyes around to represent “no!”

Qi Ling's eyes s.h.i.+ft from left to right even faster.

Yin Chen snorts before turning to look out the window again. The ice from Qi Ling's body shatters and clatters to the ground. He recovers from the cold and takes in a deep breath.

“Your expression just now was so despicable!” He thinks in his mind as he smiles respectfully at Yin Chen.



By the time Yin Chen and Qi Ling packed and went downstairs, Qi La and Tianshu Youhua were already at the exit. Even in the day, QI La looks like a sprite of the darkness cladded in a dark, magical robe. His exquisite, des.e.xed and beautiful face is as perfect as a diamond reflecting the rays of light. When Tianshu Youhua sees Qi Ling on the stairs, her expression lightens considerably.

Qi Ling looks around before asking Qi La: “Where is Lianquan and the rest?”

“They said they had something important to deal with in another place so they left first. They were heading to the island in the surrounding waters of Rennes, a place I had been to before, so I created a chess piece and let them go first.” After Qi La answered Qi Ling, he turns to face Yin Chen. An unreadable expression emerges on his face.

“The island in the surrounding waters of Rennes......” Yin Chen's gaze resembles a s.h.i.+ning blade underneath the sunlight.



Tianshu Yohua's expression hardens again. She lets out a mocking chuckle before addressing Qi Ling: “Where they want to go is their own business, why are you so concerned?”

Qi Ling doesn't get angry. Instead, he lets out a smile as bright as the sun with his teeth showing like the big boy he is, “I'm concerned about you too, you're alone right now, where are you planning to go? Why not come with us.”

“Who wants to go with all of you!” Tianshu Youhua huffs at Qi Ling, yet her elated expression betrays her words.

Yin Chen looks at them before ignoring them completely. Moving to stand before QI La, he says: “You're asking us to go to Tiange to find Thalia. What about yourself? Do you want to come with us or do you have somewhere else to be?”

“I may be heading back to the Relic of Youtuer to check on something. I felt that, when we left,” as if remembering something but at the same time not wanting to believe it, Qi La shakes his head, “Probably impossible.”

“I'll go with you.” Yin Chen stands opposing Qi la, his eyes narrowing underneath the suns.h.i.+ne.

“Hmm?” Qi La does not understand why Yin Chen said something like that.

“I need to confirm some things, and these things are related to the Relic of Youtuer,” Light surges in Yin Chen's irises, “Do you still remember Gelans.h.i.+?”

“The First Disciple alongside you, Disciple of the Earth, Gelans.h.i.+?” Qi La enquires.

“Yes. I suspect that he is not dead,” Yin Chen nods, his gaze is light the speckles of snow at dawn, “That he has always been in the Relic of Youtuer.”




[West of Aslan Empire - Surrounding waters of Rennes]

The rays of light of the early morning s.h.i.+ne on Shen Yin's face. Shen Yin wakes up and stands to survey her surroundings. The few low-leveled soul beats that had barged into the territory surrounding her are now chunks upon chunks of broken corpse. They are scattered on the ground and have been frozen. Shen Yin lifts the corners of her mouth lightly. She is quite confident of her own ward. Just like her soul beast Dreamweaver, she is always able to conjure a hunting web at any location. There are times when she feel like she is the soul beast within her, able to easily construct with her soul powers a formation of h.e.l.l that is full of murderous intents.

After getting rid of the silk-like web she had weaved last night, the ward held up by her soul powers disperses. She continues heading towards the centre of the island.

The entire island is exposed in the suns.h.i.+ne of early morning.

Black metamorphic rocks form the coast. Countless waves slap against them. The remnants of the seawater in the crevices of the rocks freeze into sharp icicles. The ground is full of acc.u.mulated snow and ice. It looks no different from the wilderness in the North Pole.

Whoosh-

Thin sounds break the silence in the air.

Shen Yin pauses and closes her eyes lightly. She feels around. When she suddenly opens her eyes, there are golden soul powers flas.h.i.+ng in her irises. In an instant, the few soul beasts behind her were thrown into the air and ripped apart into foul-smelling and burning blood rain before splattering to the ground. A moment later, they freeze in the coldness.

Just as she is about to move forth, she suddenly stops again. Her expression changes like the blue-tinged seawater. Fear spreads through her bit by bit.

She lifts her hand to pull the silver whip out noisily from her spine. The flesh at the back of her neck fuses together like flower petals instantaneously.

The silver whip lies like a white snake at her feat. Innumerable blizzards are turbulent in her eyes. The golden pattern crawls from her chest up her neck.

With the crackling sound of ice and rocks breaking, countless thin white threads emerge from beneath Shen Yin's feet at the speed of light. Like a spider's web, they rapidly weave into a large and flowing web of white. Shen Yin crouches into a strange posture. One hand is supporting her body on the ground as silver light spreads through the web. The entire ground beneath her feet is engulfed in this white glow. The web hums.

Shen Yin is located at the dead center of the web, as if a spider awaiting its prey, she glares unmovingly before her. “No matter what you are, come. Be prepared to die.”



The moving air in the distance blurs her vision. A brown shadow disappears in a flash from her vision.

And the surge of soul powers that came after is delivered through the web below Shen Yin's feet like a tidal wave.

“This……this is impossible……” The hand Shen Yin has on the ground starts to tremble, “Soul power as powerful as this can rival a lord……how can there be such a powerful soul beast on this deserted island……”

The brown shadow gains speed and nears Shen Yin at a dazzling speed. The suffocating soul powers increase exponentially, as if an entire ocean is cras.h.i.+ng down on her.



[West of Aslan Empire - Relic of Youtuer]

Qi La and Yin Chen's figures twist into beams of light in the air before disappearing. Qi Ling stares at the bronze pillar that Qi La has made into a chess piece before turning to Tianshu Youhua, “Qi La said that this chess piece will lose its effect in ten minutes. We are going to the Relic of Youtuer, do you want to come with us?”

Tianshu Youhua glares at Qi Ling before replying coldly: “Who would want to go to a place where even the living will die a second time?”

Qi Ling nods before looking at her warmly with his large and dark eyes, “Then take care of yourself. Who knows when we will meet again? Take care.” After saying that, Qi Ling grabs the bronze pillar and disappears into thin air.

The strong sunlight s.h.i.+nes straight down above her head and warms the surroundings slightly. People pa.s.s by noisily on the street outside the door. The entrance that had been full of life before now only consists of Tianshu Youhua standing there alone. She lowers her head and bites her lips before making the decision to hold onto the bronze pillar as well.



When Tianshu Youhua appears behind them, Yin Chen and Qi La turns with an expectant expression. Only Qi Ling was surprised. “You're coming with us, great!” He raises a thick eyebrow before bending to speak to Tianshu Youhua, “It's so good that you came. Another youngster! If not I'll be all alone with two old man, so boring.”

Tianshu Youhua blushes slightly as she suppresses the happiness in her heart. “Who is a youngster like you? You're just a boy. When I started learning the art of soul bending, who knew where you were playing in the mud.”

“I was probably was.h.i.+ng dishes.” Qi Ling laughs, revealing his straight teeth.



Yin Chen and Qi La leads the way as Qi Ling and Tianshu Youhua follows. Yin Chen tosses a bronze mirror in front carelessly. Like a swimming fish, the mirror gives out a soft glow, illuminating a large area before them, like a light leading the way.

“Is this mirror your soul weapon?” Qi La asks.

“One of them.” The corners of Yin Chen's lips lift slightly.

Qi La looks at Yin Chen wordlessly. A while later, he sighs, “Looks like there are many things that happened the past few years that I don't know of.” He pauses before asking again, “You say that you always felt that Gelans.h.i.+ didn't die. Why do you think he'll be in the Relic of Youtuer?”

“As a past Top lord, you should know what sort of place the Relic of Youtuer is,” Yin Chen keeps moving forward as he waves his hand, strand after strand of soul power are injected into the hovering bronze mirror with every swish of his hand, allowing a greater area to be lighted up.

Qi La nods, “Of course I know.”

“Since history, the Relic of Youtuer is an ancient city to take in the dead souls. Although the Silver Priests never told us what sort of powers are keeping the dead souls alive in the area of the relic that allows them to not dispersing, but we all know that these tens of thousands of dead souls are stationed there to protect a secret. Although we don't know what secret that is.” Yin Chen does not look at Qi La as he dissects these, almost for himself. Qi La does not respond to Yin Chen's words. Of course he knew all these.

“As the Disciple of Earth, everyone thinks that it means he's a disciple of the ground. Yet only the Top Lord and the Top Disciples know that, the Disciple of Earth is just a shortened version of the Disciples of the Territories*. Since history, the Disciple of Earth have been tasked to collect the dead souls. They are like dark guides to the netherworld, the living in a place of the dead. They lead every dead soul of a high-leveled soul master to the Relic of Youtuer and guard the place. Gelans.h.i.+ is a collector of those dead souls.”

Qi La continues forth as he listens without replying.

“I originally thought that, in the great calamity three years ago, Gelans.h.i.+ and Dong He both died. However, Qi Ling told me that when they were in the Relic of Youtuer, they met the soul master Lijier, owner of Gu Die, who had died in the town of Fauser. We all know that, the current Top Lord, Xiuchuan Dizang and his three disciples have always been living like a myth in an unknown part of the Heart, yet we don't know the reason. We do know that they have never left the Heart, which means that, if the current Disciple of Earth hasn't ever left the Heart, then tell me, Qi La, do not you want to know who is responsible for collecting the new additions of dead souls the past few years?”

Yin Chen stops speaking and slows down. He turns to look at the pallid face of Qi La beside him.


[West of Aslan Empire - Surrounding waters of Rennes]

Rip--- Rip---

The thick ropes of web piercing through the ground are like shocks of electricity, breaking through the blackness of the ground, yet the brown shadow is like an even faster ghoul, managing to avoid the attacks of the web every single time. The strong sea breeze distorts the brown shadow even more, making it look like a blurred cloud of brown fog.

When Shen Yin employs the entire soul's return circuit that covers her body, her eyes trained on the approaching brown ghoul, she fails to notice that, behind her, a dark shadow that had been as quiet as a small mountain is now a ma.s.sive shadow in the fog. Only two red eyes, each as large as the mouth of a well, can be seen through the dense fog.

A loud shriek tears through the sky. As if two sharp daggers pierced through her temples and into her brain, Shen Yin feels her blood surge in her chest, as if the weight of a hammer of ten thousand pounds is smas.h.i.+ng against her chest. The sudden concentration of soul powers behind her is like countless rotating blades, tearing tens upon thousands of gashes on her back in a matter of milliseconds. Fresh blood sprays out of her back like red mist. Within moments, the opponent has reached her. She turns to see a black bird the size of a small hill staring back at her with a murderous gleam in its red eyes.

“……Shan Gui**……what is it doing here?” Shen Yin's heart plummets. She had met soul beasts as high leveled as this near the golden lake. For it to appear on this island, there must be something that is happening here……it's just that, she was only able to defeat it with the help of Nether's top-leveled soul weapon, and now……

“All or nothing……” Rays of light explodes from Shen Yin's palm, spreading across a radius of hundreds of meters. In an instant, the white patterns on he ground all come to life, screeching as they gather towards her palm, weaving around Shen Yin like a coc.o.o.n as they contract. Through the white gleam of soul powers from the coc.o.o.n, Shen Yin sees Shan Gui's sharp dagger-like claws slamming down from the sky light thunder and lightning.

Yet at this very moment, the brown shadow that had been approaching Shen Yin suddenly leaps over her head. Before Shen Yin had the time to react, she hears the sound of flesh being town. Another piercing shriek from Shan Gui results in sound waves that cut countless wounds into Shen Yin's arms and legs. Blood gurgles from her wounds. Shen Yin releases a tremendous amount of soul powers to force her body to heal as fast as possible.



However, she is stunned into silence at the h.e.l.l-like scene unfurling before her.

The brown shadow is at a constant high speed. It avoids every single attack by Shan Gui easily. It leaps from one place to another within an instant. Its body is like a blending machine that is vibrating at high speed, aiming to destroy everything. It pierces Shan Gui left and right, resulting in countless holes on its body where hot, fresh blood sprays out, painting the skies red in a blood bath.

The ground breaks apart at Shan Gui's cries. Countless broken pieces of rocks shoot across the place as if in a tornado, exploding into dust. The weak callings before death sounds in the air.

Shen Yin withdraws the web of soul powers that has been protecting herself. The innumerable small cuts on her body are healing slowly. She finally sees the brown ghoul-like shadow clearly. It is an almost bare naked man. His red hair stands like fire. What instills the deepest fear in people is that, he has no weapons. He is currently using his bare hands to rip the ma.s.sive Shan Gui into pieces.



Shen Yin suppresses the urge to vomit as she clenches the white whip tightly in her hands, waiting to see if the situation will change.

At this moment, the man suddenly leaps to grab onto the talons of Shan Gui. With a low and angry growl, he lifts the small hill-like feathered body and smashes it words the coast. Shan Gui's immense and heavy body falls with a loud and dull bang onto the edge of the ocean. Rocks crack under its weight as water splashes high.

“This strength……inhumane……what is this creature……” Shen Yin stares at the men. The fear in her heart is about to engulf her whole.

Just as Shen Yin is still in shock at the destruction the man's body can bring, Shan Gui suddenly opens its large blade-like beak. A dense concentration of rain-like sharp rocks shoots out from its mouth rapidly. Just as Shen Yin moves to employ her soul powers, the man's shadow flashes and moves before Shen Yin to block her. His movement is like a flash of lightning, turning the rock fragments attacking from five different directions into dust with his hands. However, he misses one and it flies towards Shen Yin at the speed of light. Just as Shen Yin lifts her whip, the man moves again and his arm reaches to block before Shen Yin With. With a puffing sound, the fist-sized rock cuts cleanly through the man's arm, leaving behind a gaping hole. Shen Yin stills. A feeling of disgust rises from her stomach.

The things that shot out from Shan Gui's beak are not rocks, but tongues covered with sharp spikes. The tongue that had pierced through the man's arm is currently wriggling as it releases ear-shattering shrieks, as if a monster with life, biting and tearing into the man's arm like a snake as it worms up his arm.

The man reaches out his other hand. His long fingers are five sharp and precise knives, cutting into his own flesh expressionlessly and squeezing the shrieking tongue into mangled flesh and blood.

Shen Yin looks at the man as her expression hardens. “I didn't need you to save me. I could have dealt with this attack myself.” After saying that, she moves ahead. Just as she lifts her eyes up to look at Shan Gui, she realizes that the second wave of torrential rain-like tongues is attacking in a dense formation. A series of crisp smacks cut through the air as Shen Yin movies her whip around in a fast moment, turning the attacking tongues into dust. However, like before, in the very last second, two tongues piece through her abdomen.  The stench of blood rises up her gullet and she flies backwards from the attack. She falls onto the ground heavily. Her gaze is dispersed due to the pain and her beautiful face is contorted in agony as painful hoa.r.s.e cries emit from her throat.

The man appears in a flash beside her and pulls of the two tongues that are currently tearing through Shen Yin's abdomen. After turning them into mush, he lowers his head to spare a glance at Shen Yin before turning again. In that moment, the soul's return circuit rises onto the surface of his skin. His entire body is engulfed in a blinding golden glare. An angry roar pushes out from his chest and Shen Yin sees the thundering on the surface of the ocean behind Shan Gui. A large arc rises from the ocean as if a large monster is awakening. An ear-piercing exploding sound follows. Dozens of thick jets of water shoots from the arc in the ocean and after drawing perfect arches in the air, they all crackle and freeze into sharp pillars of ice before stabbing towards Shan Gui all at once.

Countless sharp chunks of ice blow up in the surroundings as Shan Gui's anguished cries dissipate into the receding tides like mist.



At this moment, far above them on a cliff, Thalia is smiling gently as she looks at the ma.s.sacre of life and death beneath her. The wind blows her black mist-like dress away from her, looking like an alluring black demon wrapping itself around her voluptuous figure. She is wearing very little clothes, resulting in large patches of her snow-white skin to be exposed to the harsh cold winter air. Yet she doesn't seem to be bothered about that.

She lifts her hand gently to cover her tender petal-like lips and smiles charmingly. She then frowns slightly before sighing, “Sigh, my foolish little darling, what an amorous seed. Ah, what a pity! Nether's disciple is much too weak, she's really not worthy of you……”

She pauses. As if suddenly sensing something, the smile freezes on the corners of her lips. She closes her eyes suddenly before opening them again. At this point, her irises that had been clear and dark a second before is now a murky patch of white wind and snow. The distant and dream-like expression appears on her face once again.

“Ha……haha, interesting……very interesting……so she willingly allowed herself to be attacked……fascinating……turns out that after us, even more twisted Corroders were created after us……”

Thalia's eyes return to its clear and black state. She smiles gently again. Like a ghost scattered by the wind, she turns and disappears from the black cliff.



**Lit. Mountain Ghost