Lu Qingyun was now climbing on the massive overhanging chain that was chaining to the floating citadel above.
The winds were heavy and it had threatened to loosen his grip on a few occasions.
But Lu Qingyun had exercised all his profound strength to tighten his grip as he made his way across the massive overhanging chain.
Because he was a fifth realm expert now, it only took him slightly less than an hour to perform the feat to the equally massive floating citadel.
If it was a fourth realm expert, they may even need two hours to complete the treacherous climb against the furious fury of the strong winds.
He sighed quietly as he made his way to the walls of the citadel, "I have only two hours left to burn the talisman and to leave this place."
This citadel was in a much better shape than the ruins below and was hidden from view within the tall mountains.
As soon as Lu Qingyun had stepped on the castle walls of the citadel, he was in awe. He was like a tiny ant that was looking at the towering walls and entrances of the citadel. The many entrances of this citadel were as wide as twenty men standing side by side and as tall as ten men put together.
He was completely stunned by the imposing and grandeur of the entrances.
He randomly picked an entrance to walk inside and saw that the passageways were even more imposing and large, colored by white and gold walls that seemed to be immune to the passage of time.
It was only then that he noticed that there were no dusts along the passageway or anywhere but there seemed to be a gentle wind that was flowing everywhere from all around him.
He was suddenly perplexed.
Dusts were supposed to be everywhere and moreover this citadel was too huge. No one had the time or will to clean this place. This was his conclusion.
Suddenly he was startled by a sudden thought. What if this was a ghost citadel and that everything was just an illusion? Although it seemed grand and out of place with the passage of time but this may all be an illusion. The reality was that this place was actually broken down and there may be holes all over the ground to lure the unwary to fall to their deaths below.
But he soon pushed this conclusion out of his mind because he was now a golden celestial. Illusions could be easily perceived by the divine sense of the golden celestials and illusions were futile against him now.
Then he did something that few cultivators would bother to do.
He rubbed his neck and threw a speck of dirt on the ground and patiently watched for five minutes. Soon he noticed that the gentle winds were lifting the speck of dirt and were throwing it out of the citadel.
"So that where all the dusts go to!" He clapped his right hand against his left palm, delighted that the mystery had been solved.
If Qian Jingjing, Zhao Xingye and Zhao Riyue were here, they would have stopped him immediately because this was a complete waste of time and useless to the exploration.
"But where did the wind come from?" Lu Qingyun asked. "It will be interesting to find out."
Again, if Qian Jingjing, Zhao Xingye and Zhao Riyue were here, they would have stopped him immediately because this was a complete waste of time and useless to the exploration.
But because they were not around, Lu Qingyun was not in a rush to explore the citadel and instead he was simply following his heart and satisfying his own curiosity.
So he started to use his divine sense to follow the source of the winds.
"Yan'Er, warn me if there are any dangers." He said to her in his soul sea.
"Master, actually now that you are a golden celestial, your divine sense is now as sharp as me now." Yan'Er yawned softly.
"Don't be lazy, Yan'Er."
"Master, Yan'Er thinks that you are the one that is being lazy…"
"Haha, is it? I've got better use for my divine sense than to waste my energies on constant vigilant. There is a saying, the enemy will never strike when you are on your best vigilant but will always strike you when you are at your lowest vigilant!"
Yan'Er: ???
"Master, so the enemy will always strike you because you are at your lowest vigilant?" Yan'Er asked, not understanding.
"No. The enemy will never strike me because I'm not wasting my profound strength on my mental energies to maintain full vigilant."
Yan'Er: -__-?
"Erm, I mean that your enemy will always strike you because they want you to exhaust all your strength first so that you cannot have the strength to retaliate back. Never mind…just help me to be on a lookout for dangers."
Yan'Er displayed a sheepish look before she said, "Lazy master…"
"Lazy Yan'Er too. We are supposed to be on an exploration expedition and Yan'Er is napping. We need to be united in our minds and souls. Only then can we succeed…"
"Erm…Yan'Er? Yan'Er, you are there?"
"She has dozed off…"
"Crap…"
"Nowadays you can't trust a growing up sentient spirit entity. I need to put a note for this somewhere…" Lu Qingyun was muttering while he walked around the passageways.
He soon followed the winds to the underground basement of the citadel.
Usually most people would go to the inner citadel where the treasuries were in search for the profound treasures but Lu Qingyun was driven more by his curiosity rather than an interest in the profound treasures.
Soon he had come to a white and gold gate that towered over him.
He was frowning softly, "This is just a gate here. To think that I've wasted half an hour in a vain search. How is it possible for the winds to be generated behind a closed gate…"
Yan'Er suddenly shouted panicky, "Master, there is an eerie presence behind this gate."
Lu Qingyun was startled as he quickly used his divine sense to sense beyond the gate but there was nothing.
He began to rebuke Yan'Er lightly, "What eerie presence? There are no ghosts in the world…"
"But Yan'Er saw your ghostly citadel images earlier…"
Lu Qingyun laughed softly, "That is only my imagination. Silly Yan'Er. You need to discern what is real and what is my imagination…"
All of a sudden the white and gold gate began to swing open slowly, startling Lu Qingyun.
There were strong winds that were blowing from within the room and as the gate began to open, the gentle winds had suddenly become strong winds that were almost swept Lu Qingyun away.
Lu Qingyun immediately used his profound strength to display the Thousand Weight Fall to root himself where he was.
As he lifted his sleeve to shelter his face from the strong winds that were blowing against his face, he suddenly saw a little girl dressed in white that was about six standing in front of him!
This little girl did not seem to be affected by the strong winds at all and the winds seemed to blow through her.
Behind her, was a metallic ball that was hovering rapidly in mid-air and it seemed that this metallic ball was the reason why there were winds in this place.
Lu Qingyun stammered, "Who are you?"
Yan'Er had also appeared all of a sudden as she lifted her little finger at the little girl, "She is the eerie presence, master."
Lu Qingyun smiled weakly, "Right…"
He quickly regained his composure as he asked the little girl in white, "You are…a spirit entity?"
The little girl slowly nodded as she pointed at the massive hovering metallic ball, "I'm the spirit entity of this citadel's artefact core."
Lu Qingyun looked at her curiously, "Judging from your size, you must be around ten thousand years old?"
Yan'Er chuckled, "Master, she is a million year old."
Lu Qingyun: …
"I think I will give up on guessing the age of the spirit entities. It all doesn't add up to me." He sighed.
Then he smiled weakly to the little girl in white, "Are you friend or foe? What is your name?"
The little girl smiled as she said awkwardly, "My name is…Xingxin. I am…just Xingxin."
Yan'Er had hovered to her and was laughing, "I am Yan'Er and this is my Master Lu Qingyun. Got it?"
Xingxin returned a light nod.
Lu Qingyun was astonished, "So Xingxin is a also a sentient spirit entity? But where is your master?"
Xingxin replied, "I have no master. I am…the master of this Flying Cloud Citadel. I am all alone now."
Lu Qingyun was startled, "You are the master of this citadel?"
Then he quickly said with a weak smile, "Please forgive us for intruding. I am just exploring the area. If you are not happy with us for intruding, we can leave immediately. Haha."
And with that he had really turned his back around with a sheepish look, "Yan'Er, let's go!"
All of a sudden Xingxin had re-appeared in front of him and behind her, the white gold gate had shut itself now. "You cannot go."
Lu Qingyun was smiling weakly, "Please open the gate…"
Xingxin shook her head lightly as she said softly, "Not until you agree to my demands."
Lu Qingyun: …
He was now being held hostage by a sentient spirit entity. And the most important question was, how do you kill a spirit entity?
Then he took a look at Yan'Er before saying bitterly, "Yan'Er, I think I leave this fight to you."
Yan'Er: …