Chapter 248: Black Demon City Both the scar-faced man and horse-faced man looked warped with shock and fear. They never imagined that Huang Xiaolong would know such a method. Soul marking techniques were arcane and had been a lost heritage for many years. Around six hundred years ago, there was a Saint realm warrior that used such arcane, soul marking to take control over several big families’ Patriarchs and Sect Sovereigns, setting off a maelstrom of carnage in the Martial Spirit World. Cultivators and commoners alike lived in trepidation. During that time, the Xiantian warriors that died under that person’s hand numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Xiantian realm warriors, hundreds of thousands! As for Houtian warriors, countless! The real manifestation of ‘blood flows like a river’! At the end, that person’s actions finally enraged some high-level recluse Saint realm experts that lived in a mysterious independent space, coming out to siege and hunt that person. Still, it only ended when a half-step God Realm high-expert joined the ranks of the pursuers, successfully killing the culprit. He was referred to as Gorefiend by later generations. Watching the many thoughts flashing clearly on the two people’s faces, Huang Xiaolong’s mouth curved up at the corners into a cold sneer, sharp cold lights flickered close to Huang Xiaolong’s hands as he summoned the Blades of Asura. The Blades of Asura appeared, issuing a strange buzzing sound as they vibrated. On the surface of their bodies, a mysterious dark light flowed like a black liquid, causing the two injured men to tense up immediately. “I, I’m willing to release my soul sea barrier!” The words flew out from the horse-faced man without further delay. “Me too, I’m willing!” The scar-faced man also did the same. Compared to dying, both of them were more willing to let Huang Xiaolong brand a soul mark in their soul seas, although doing so would give Huang Xiaolong full control over their life and death. Still, it was more favorable than dying immediately. Seeing the two men’s swift response, Huang Xiaolong snorted, ordering them to release their soul seas as he initiated the Soul Mandate. Deep inside Huang Xiaolong’s pupils, two dark purple soul characters glowed and flew out from Huang Xiaolong eyes, instantly entering into the scar-faced man and horse-faced man’s soul seas through the center of their eyebrows before their horrified expressions, firmly imprinting a soul mark in the core of their minds. In the three months journey here, Huang Xiaolong had entered the first level of the Ancient Puppetry Art, allowing him to brand soul marks into others’ soul sea. Not only that, he managed to fuse the Ancient Puppetry soul marking method with the Soul Mandate so that he could use the Soul Mandate to perform the soul mark. It brought a better effect. The person being controlled looked normal from outside, being no different before and after the branding, not even someone close would notice anything wrong. Sensing Huang Xiaolong’s soul mark within their soul seas, both men gave up on the idea of betrayal. “This two pellets, swallow them.” A tiny bright spark flashed as Huang Xiaolong withdrew two thumb-sized medicinal pellets from the Asura Ring. Staring at the round pellets in Huang Xiaolong’s palm, their faces tightened once more. “This is..?!” Once again they couldn’t help but ask with apprehension. Huang Xiaolong’s face turned icy, “If I tell you to swallow, then swallow it down!” With a wave, the two pellets floated into their palms. Staring at the round pellets and at Huang Xiaolong, the scar-faced and horse-faced man paled slightly, however, they obediently swallow it down. The instant the medicinal pellet entered their mouths, a warm energy spread throughout their bodies, they clearly felt the injuries on their bodies heal at rapid speed. Knowing that they had mistaken Huang Xiaolong’s kind intentions, thinking those two pellets were poison pills instead of healing pellets, they looked gratefully at Huang Xiaolong. “Now, lead me to your Sky Magi Sect, tell me about the sect’s situation on the way.” Huang Xiaolong instructed. “Yes, Master!” Both bowed respectfully. Huang Xiaolong flew up and left the wide plains, led by his newly recruited subordinates. As for the Asura Demon Claw, Huang Xiaolong would come again another time. On the way, the two middle-aged men reported the Sky Magi Sect’s situation to Huang Xiaolong. The horse-faced man was called Du Xin and the sword scar-faced man was called Deng Guangliang, both were Sky Magi Sect Elders. Furthermore, the Sky Magi Sect’s Patriarch, Chen Xiaotian, was their Master. Chen Xiaotian had five disciples in total, and amongst them, Du Xin and Deng Guangliang’s strength was considered the highest. The other three disciples were Xiantian Third Order, Fourth Order, and one at Xiantian Fifth Order. Apart from them, the Sky Magi Sect had roughly one hundred and thirty Xiantian realm experts, however, within those numbers, only twenty of them were mid-level Xiantian, and as for high-level Xiantian, there were only two people. High-level Xiantian realm experts, one of them was none other than their Master, Chen Xiaotian, a late-Xiantian Seventh Order, whereas the other person was the Sky Magi Sect’s Grand Elder, Geng Ken, a peak mid-Xiantian Seventh Order. When the subject steered towards Chen Xiaotian’s martial spirit, Huang Xiaolong was quite surprised to find out that Chen Xiaotian’s martial spirit was actually the Windfire Tree! Windfire Tree, a nature type martial spirit of the tree family, a first rank grade eleven martial spirit! In the Martial Spirit World, the emergence of a nature type tree martial spirit was rare, moreover, it was a superb talent martial spirit. Geng Ken’s martial spirit was slightly lackluster compared to Chen Xiaotian, a top grade ten martial spirit belonging to the weapon type, the Heaven Splitting Hammer. Although Geng Ken was only a Grand Elder, his influence in the sect was comparable to Chen Xiaotian’s, as the Sovereign. There were over twenty Elders in the Sky Magi Sect and nearly half of them belonged to Geng Ken’s faction, listening to his orders. In conclusion, Chen Xiaotian didn’t have full control over the Sky Magi Sect. “Geng Ken...” Huang Xiaolong repeated the name to no one in particular. This Geng Ken’s strength was weaker than Chen Xiaotian’s, yet he succeeded in reigning in half of the support to stand toe to toe with Chen Xiaotian. There had to be a different charm to him. Du Xin and Deng Guangliang led Huang Xiaolong, flying northward. Three hours later, Huang Xiaolong saw a granite city, built upon vast stretch of golden sand dunes. The city was undoubtedly huge. Perhaps because of the years of succumbing to the grinding of desert sand, the city walls looked mottled and weather worn. Nearing the city, Huang Xiaolong noticed that the top of the city walls reflected countless obscured dark lights, decorating the granite city walls. Huang Xiaolong guessed these dark lights should be splatters of blood left behind for many years, then again, only a massive number of slaughters could leave such a mark. One could imagine how many people’s blood stained these city walls. It could be a million, it could be ten million! “This is Black Demon City?” Huang Xiaolong asked. “Yes, Young Lord, this is Black Demon City.” Du Xin and Deng Guangliang both replied. ‘Master’ sounded awkward to Huang Xiaolong’s ears, thus he made Du Xin and Deng Guangliang change how they refer to him to Young Lord. The Sky Magi Sect was located in Black Demon City. Huang Xiaolong nodded as he followed the two towards Black Demon City’s city gates. “Oh, it’s Elder Du Xin and Elder Deng Guangliang.” When they neared the city gates, someone that seemed to be the city guards’ captain approached Du Xin and Deng Guangliang, greeting them with a cupped fist and a smile. He ordered his subordinates to open the city gates, allowing the group of three to enter the city smoothly. Du Xin and Deng Guangliang nodded their heads slightly towards that captain, entering the city with Huang Xiaolong. Entering the city, Huang Xiaolong surveyed the city as he walked down the streets. The streets in Black Demon City were about twenty meters wide ,with shop fronts lining both sides of the streets, yet it lacked the bustling, prosperous atmosphere found in the Duanren Imperial City or any other big cities for that matter. Most of the doors and walls of these shop fronts bore fighting scars from blades, swords, and other weapons. Some of these shop fronts’ signboards were actually cleaved in half, and along the way, they would come across an occasional puddle of blood. Evidence that a fresh battle just happened. As Huang Xiaolong strolled along the streets, looking around, the people in the streets were also observing him with curious stares. But, these curiosities were nipped in the bud when they caught sight of Du Xin and Deng Guangliang behind him. Noticing Du Xin and Deng Guangliang, the pedestrians quickly scrambled away in fear. Du Xin and Deng Guangliang donned on the Sky Magi Sect Elders’ robes, and here in Black Demon City, the Sky Magi Sect was one of the three hegemony powers.