Chapter 97 – The Curse of Qu Family
With their fast pace, they reached the peak in an instant.
There were ancient buildings constructed on the peak of the mountain. Behind these structures, there was a greenish mountain which was hundreds of feet high. From the mountain, a beautiful waterfall flowed down and splashed into the pool in the midst of the structures.
“What a serene place.” Ye Chen secretly wondered. He had always been in the towns and cities, therefore, by coming to this remote place in the island, he felt extremely refreshed.
Following the old stony road, Ye Chen and the man with the yellow face reached a big hut situated in the center.
“Master, we have a visit from a disciple of the [Sky Cloud Martial School].” The man with the yellow face shouted.
“Bring him in.” A hoarse voice replied.
Ye Chen stepped inside the house.
An old man was sitting in the living room. He was around seventy years old, his skin color was yellow as well. It seemed like it was not due to malnutrition and was instead a naturally yellow. There was a green-shirted young man sitting there, Qu Ming, who had reached slightly earlier.
Qu Ming was surprised that Ye Chen could arrive on Pan Shan Island.
Walking to the middle of the hall, Ye Chen greeted, “I am a disciple of the Sky Cloud Martial School. Nice to meet you, Master Qu.”
The old man nodded, “You got here after accepting the task?”
“Yes.”
“Well, with the help of two disciple, we have a better chance to seek for the lost ship.”
“I, Ye Chen will do my best for this.” During their conversation, Ye Chen felt hesitant and carefully probed the skill level of the old man. After finding out that the old man was only at the seventh stage of the Mortal Realm, he could not help but ask, “Master Qu, on my way, I saw that all the residents of Qu were below Condensing Reality Realm, what happened?” He couldn’t believe that a big clan could not bring out a warrior of the Condensing Reality Realm. Qu Ming from the family was a good example, if he could cultivate to the Clasping Yuan Realm, he would become a clan veteran warrior.
The old man sighed, “Please have a seat.”
Ye Chen took a seat in front of Qu Ming and waited for the explanation of the old man.
“Qu family could also bring Condensing Reality Realm stage warriors here, but they could not survive in the island for even three months. Every warrior who had reached this level would either experience disasters or were killed by the demon. If not this, they would go mad and would then disappear. Therefore, when Qu Ming had reached the Condensing Reality Realm previously, I sent him away from Pan Shan Island.” The old man said slowly.
“Isn’t that weird?” Ye Chen took a long breath, astonished.
Qu Ming calmly said, “It’s true. My father went mad and died fifteen years ago without any symptom.”
The atmosphere in the hall turned solemn.
Ye Chen asked, “Couldn’t Qu Family leave Pan Shan Island and seek for a new home in another place? There must be a place suitable for the Qu Family.”
“Three thousand years ago, when the Ancient Water Lake hadn’t gotten that name yet, it was called the Green Lake. We, the Qu Family used to live near the Green Lake, the Pan Shan Island had not even formed then. However, when our clan members retrieved an artifact from a cave underwater, everything changed. An earthquake occurred, spanning across thousands of miles. The land completely changed, it turned into a deep pit after that terrifying incident. Three months of thunderstorms almost submerged everything around the Qu Clan. In that life and death situation, an island fell down from the sky, replacing the big pit in the Green Lake. Our ancestors thought that this was a gift and mercy from the gods and decided to move the family to that island. That island is the Pan Shan Island of now, the Pan Shan Road was built later.”
Recalling the past, the old man said, “But after we moved to the Pan Shan Island, it was found that every warrior above the mortal realm would die in three months without exception. The strongest clan leader after our ancestor told us something before he died.”
“What did he say?” Ye Chen got interested.
The old man squeezed out word by word with all his might, “The Demon… The Curse…, just these four word.”
The Demon, the Curse!
Ye Chen felt a cold breeze blow on his back, he shivered. These four words seemed to possess a magical aura, even speaking them out was terrifying!
Qu Ming’s face looked pale, every time he heard these words, he would be overcome with fear. It was a something horrifying that existed in the blood in his veins, something that could not be dispelled, something that could not be forgotten.
The old man had a wry smile on his face, “Isn’t it frightening?”
Ye Chen did not flaunt his courage, he just nodded.
“When I heard these four words the first time, I was far more frightened than you. For a whole month, I could not fall asleep. I just felt as if there were shadows moving around, like ghosts roaring. But after a while, i felt numbed as I understood that as long as we did not cultivate to the Condensing Reality Realm, we would be alive and could lead a normal life.”
Here, Ye Chen gazed at the old man again, he had not yet answered to his question.
The old man continued, “We had indeed thought about fully moving the family, but we just could not successfully do it. The previous clan leader had commanded the family to move out of the island before he died. Our men followed his orders and decided to leave. They formed three batches and planned to move out batch by batch. The frightening thing is that there was only one survivor from the first batch, the rest of them all encountered unexpected calamities and died in extremely horrible ways. The only survivor went crazy after the forlorn attempt to escape. Within three years after coming back to Pan Shan Island, he was also dead.”
‘Could not leave Pan Shan Island? But what about Qu Ming who had managed to move out of the island. There was something wrong, there was one survivor from the first batch of migration. Even though he died afterwards, it is a death due to severe depression. It should not be related to the Curse. This means that only one man was able to escape safely from the island without being affected by the threat of the Curse. This signifies a slim chance of survival, leaving hope for them. This is a community of hundreds and thousands of people, there must definitely be some exceptions.’ In a short time, Ye Chen had numerous thoughts go through his mind.
“Years passed, some of the young men slowly stopped believing the curse and started to try and migrate again. There were a few of them. But, once again, only one of them survived after going hundreds of miles away from the Pan Shan Island. Others all died miserably, no one could explain these phenomenon.” The old man said this with a fatigued expression.
Ye Chen almost got a complete idea of these incidents. Unbelievably, there was a terrifying disaster taking place on such a beautiful and peaceful island. There was an underwater cave, an island that fell from the sky and a cursed clan. This was so ridiculous and horrifying and completely unexplainable with normal reasoning. Maybe when he increased his cultivation to a higher realm, he might be able to resolve this confusion and this uncertainty. But, he did not dare to do anything for now as he was also afraid of getting infected with this curse on the Island. He would have no one to save him and would forever be unable to leave this place, unless he killed Qu Ming. But, he was not sure whether he could survive even after Qu Ming’s death as he was not from the same clan as Qu Ming. He might still die after three months.
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Translated by : Sheryl, Ace
Edited by : Jaggerjakk, Orphire
From XianXiaWorld