As she continued to move around, the fighting for the treasure intensified. People ganged up on others for all kinds of items. No one retreated, everyone continued to fight with even more ferocity. Even friends were at each other's necks. Ming Yue had a strange feeling about this and decided to look around. She and Xiao Yin seemed to be unaffected and Ming Yue decided to investigate.
"There must be something around here that is causing this", she thought.
Ming Yue looked around the first area from afar, she did not want to be sucked into the fighting. The hall itself wasn't very decorative, there were blue banners on the walls as well as stone statues. Then, she noticed something peculiar at the end of the hall. Beyond the fighting was another statue. However compared to the other ones, it was much larger and much more detailed. It was of a man wearing armor, he had a deranged look in his eyes as he wielded a sabre on one hand and his other hand was covered in fire.
"This must have been the Blue Fire Scion. What an expression he has", she thought.
Ming Yue sent Xiao Yin ahead and moved closer to the statue, avoiding the eyes of anyone who wanted to fight. Fortunately, everyone was too focused on the treasure and none of them noticed her. When she arrived at the statue, she inspected it. The statue was pristine and must have been made by a master sculptor. There was such detail to the expression, it was almost life-like.
Xiao Yin then tweeted at her and flew to one of his arms, pecking at it. She looked at the arm which held the fire, touching it before trying to move it around. When she pulled it down, the arm suddenly moved down like a lever. From there, the noise of gears and mechanisms resounded throughout the hall.
During the commotion, the statues from before started moving. They moved away from the walls and went towards the statue of the Blue Fire Scion. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the moving statues. At this point, the statues had formed a line facing the cultivators, some of people had noticed that something was amiss and decided to escape only to find that the entrance had closed.
As everyone started recovering from their crazed condition, a voice was heard from the statues.
"Welcome to my domain, I see that you have all come here to raid my master's home."
A clump of blue fire then appeared, it was somewhat small and did not have a form. However, the fact that it could speak showed that it had intelligence. It floated above them, moving around the halls.
"I believe that you have all experienced the Demon's Greed Incense as well. That was just the beginning, unfortunately, none of you can leave now. You will all suffer for intruding and you will fulfill you fate as sacrifice for my master", said the fire in a unemotional tone.
Everyone suddenly realized something. This was a trap, one that would lead to their death.
The fire spirit then continued, "You see, my master, the Blue Fire Scion was not a very righteous man. He did all he could to increase his cultivation. He killed and bathed in blood, did all kinds of things, just to reach a higher level. However at one point he fell in love with someone, she was beautiful and extremely strong. She was one of the few who cared for him and he loved her the most. After tens of years, they were about to be married. It was to be a joyous occasion but a week before their day, she was killed by one of his enemies. In rage, he hunted and killed all of them them, burning them before attacking their homes and families. At the end, he knew that she would not come back, but what if there was a way to bring her back from the dead? My master searched everywhere for answer before he finally found something. From there, he worked like a madman to bring her back."
Ming Yue could not help but think about the Dusk Lily Pin and the portrait Tian Xing. She had a feeling that this woman was most likely the Blue Fire Scion's wife to be.
After pausing, fire moved around before speaking again.
"Before he could finish, time had taken him. The final thing my master needed...was a body, one that would fit his wife. Unfortunately he could not find a suitable one and settled for a different method. To create one from the lives of thousands", it said.
"Before he died, he commanded me to complete his final wishes of making that body, which means that you all must die."
When the spirit finished, it sent out smaller flames from its body towards the line of statues. The statues from before were engulfed in fire, stone melted revealing something else. In place of these statue were metallic skeletons. They had flames in the empty sockets of their eyes and their hands were covered in blue fire. They slowly approached the people with ghastly grins on their faces. Fear began to crawl inside of everyone as they slowly moved back.
It was twenty of these monsters against a hundred cultivators. The spirit moved towards the last statue and then spread through out it, melting the stone. Slowly the statue revealed itself to be a corpse wielding a sabre on one hand and fire on the other, just like its original form. It was different from the skeletons as the corpse had flesh and blood. As it moved behind its minions, it began talking but it was the spirit's voice.
"Perhaps of such an event did not happen, you would not have had this fate. Alas, it is too late to save yourselves. Resign to your fate!"
Ming Yue and the others could do nothing but prepare to fight. One of the teams charged first clashing with the skeletons while everyone followed suit. Several teams took care of a skeleton leaving only the one controlled by the fire spirit alone. However, this could not happen and any team that had more than 4 members, sent one of them to fight it.
As for Ming Yue's group, she was sent to combat the corpse. In terms of strength she was equal, if not stronger than any of her other team members. Thus a group of 17 formed to deal with the corpse warrior. Losing meant death, and none of them could afford to die just yet.
"Oh, someone actually obtained the Dusk Lily Pin, a possession of my master. Unfortunately, it will continue to stay like that. In the end, all that matters is that you will become part of my master's plan", the corpse said in an icy tone.
Everyone had heavy expressions as the corpse approached them, readying their weapons and circulating their energy.