Ling Han laughed, and released Li Si Chan’s hand before saying, “Have you finished packing?”
Just now, he and Li Si Chan were in charge of sending the two little girls over, while Liu Yu Tong was in charge of packing their stuff.
“I’ve finished,” Liu Yu Tong said with a nod. The gaze she directed at Li Si Chan was not very friendly, as she pondered whether or not she should secretly kill off the girl in the wilds.
“Then let’s go!” Ling Han seemed to be filled with anticipation.
What actually lay underneath the underground river that high-level Spirit Tools would flow out from it?
They went on their way, left the Academy and traveled out of the Imperial City, heading towards the Blood-Gushing Mountain that was about two thousand miles away. The mountain was named thus because every so often, the rivers and streams that surged from the mountain would be dyed red, as if it was blood flowing in the rivers, not water.
Because the journey was quite long, all three of them rented horses. Otherwise, they would have to spend quite a few days merely on the journey itself.
“I am an orphan, and it was only when I was found out to have remarkable talent in alchemy that I gradually left poverty, but it is not entirely a good thing when a woman is born too beautiful. As I grew older, I became the target of desire of more and more people.”
On the journey there, Li Si Chan began to reveal her circumstances.
“Unlike Miss Liu, who has a powerful Clan behind her to protect her, I could only try my best to keep a low profile, and hide. However, I may be able to hide for a moment, but could never hide for my whole life. In the end, I became the target of the Seventh Young Master of the He Clan. But thankfully, I encountered my master at that time and he took me in as a disciple, allowing me to escape from a tragic fate.”
This was indeed a very pitiful story, but Liu Yu Tong was extremely displeased, for she was used for comparison.
You just see, how pitiful the other was. Sigh, beautiful women suffer unhappy fates, how easy was it to incur the sympathy of men? And her? From birth, she was the princess of the Liu Clan, enjoying all the luxuries and wealth granted to her identity!
Damn this scheming woman!
During the journey, they would travel by day and take rest at night, and with the company of the two girls, Ling Han did not feel too bored. A journey of about two thousand miles couldn’t really be considered too long, and as they managed to travel about eight hundred miles in a single day, three days later, they finally arrived at Blood-Gushing Mountain.
The Blood-Gushing Mountain did not occupy too large an area. From east to west, north to south, it only occupied about a hundred miles square or so. But the mountain was extraordinarily tall and steep, as if it was an arrow shot towards the clouds, going straight up into the sky. If one raised their head to look, no matter how good their sight was, they wouldn’t be able to see the top.
The extreme height of the mountain put it in a class of its own.
There was a large amount of greenery on this mountain, and the tall trees covering the mountain could even approach a thousand metres in height, as if they were the titans of the ancient times standing proudly on the mountain. But, strangely enough, there were not many animals here.
Ling Han and the others very quickly arrived at the location of the underground river. It was very easy to find, because Blood-Gushing Mountain was not too big. The recent earthquake caused the appearance of an underground river, and it could be easily spotted from afar.
The ground cracked, and out appeared an underground river about a hundred feet wide. The river water was extremely clear, and when they got close to it, they could feel a piercing cold.
They followed the river upstream, and after about an hour, a blockade appeared in front of them.
This was a man-made fence created from bamboo. It was only half-completed, and there were people all around it being busy. From the looks of it, they were ordinary villagers. However, when Ling Han and the others went closer, “Xiu,” immediately a figure shot out to block their advance.
“Halt, you are not allowed to advance further!” The man shouted. He looked to be in his forties, and was quite tall and sturdy, as if he was an iron tower.
Ling Han scanned over this person, and could already tell the person’s cultivation level—ninth layer of Gushing Spring Tier.
“Yi, Seventh Uncle!” Liu Yu Tong quickly stepped out from behind Ling Han and greeted the middle-aged man.
“Yu Tong?” The middle-aged man looked very surprised, “Why have you come here?” The secret of the underground river should only be known to the imperial family, the Eight Great Clans, and a very limited number of extremely powerful elite warriors.
“We are here under command of Headmaster Wu, Wu Song Lin, as his fully endorsed representatives,” Ling Han said.
“What!?” The middle-aged man was even more astonished. There were Spirit Tools floating out on this underground river, and it was definitely the biggest treasure trove since the establishing of Rain Country. There would definitely be debates between the various parties in the Imperial City, yet what did Wu Song Lin do? He actually sent a few juniors over as his representatives, this was really taking things too lightly, wasn’t it?
“This is my Master’s letter,” Li Si Chan took out a letter. Wu Song Lin of course knew that a mere verbal statement was no guarantee, and so had already prepared his token and a letter written by his hand as proof.
The middle-aged man took the latter, but with his status, he did not have the right to open the letter. He only said, “Please come with me.”
He led the way while Ling Han and the others followed behind.
“This is my Seventh Uncle. His name is Liu Bu Cheng,” Liu Yu Tong introduced.
Ling Han nodded. While a cultivation level of the ninth layer of Gushing Spring Tier was not something he would take seriously, in the small place that was Rain Country, it was indeed very impressive—just think, Da Yuan City had under its jurisdiction such a large area, yet only the Da Yuan King himself had reached Spiritual Ocean Tier. Thus, the cultivation level of the ninth layer of Gushing Spring Tier could be declared as an elite warrior wherever he was in Rain Country.
In truth, as long as one managed to break through to Gushing Spring Tier, they’d be considered desirable pillars of support for any party in Rain Country, able to help carry the weight of the party.
When they walked a little further ahead, they saw that there were a few martial artists standing guard on the river bank, they eyes firmly focused on the river’s surface, as if there were treasures lying within. Their attention was fully focused on the river’s surface, not daring to have the slightest bit of carelessness.
When they walked further ahead, they saw that there was actually a fishing net stretched out in the river, and there were people standing guard at both sides.
“It’s here! It’s here!” Someone gasped in astonishment, causing Ling Han and his group to stop walking, and look towards the river.
They saw that a jade bottle was floating downstream. There were multiple damaged spots on the body of the jade bottle, and the intact places sported a few engraved seals. The seals looked very complicated, as if they were depicting the Dao of Heaven and Earth, ancient and mature.
Spirit Tool!
Ling Han’s eyes lit up. He had been a powerful warrior of Heaven Tier in his last life, and so of course had his own Spirit Tools. He had even managed to create his own Spirit Tools, so he was definitely more capable than everyone else here in the evaluation of Spirit Tools. When he swept his eyes over it, he could tell that this Spirit Tool was nothing ordinary.
It was at least a Level Eight one!
‘Such a Spirit Tool is qualified to develop its own spirit,’ he thought.
The jade bottle quickly floated into the fishing net, and as its advance was stopped by the net, it instantly stopped. But a seal on the jade bottle instantly flashed, and ‘Pu’, a huge hole was torn in the net, and the jade bottle continued to follow the flow of the river, heading further downstream.
Everyone watched as it floated further downstream, and they saw that the several martial artists standing guard a bit further downstream all moved, trying to catch hold of the jade bottle. Yet this time, even more seals on the jade bottle shone, and ‘Xiu’, it zoomed into the skies, and as if it was a shooting star, it streaked across the sky until it disappeared from sight.
A Spirit Tool… and like that, it was gone.
‘So that’s the case.’
Ling Han nodded. Setting up fishing nets and various other blockades at a spot furthest upstream to detain the floating Spirit Tools, and finally, having no other choice, attempting to actually use manpower to fish out the Spirit Tools. After all, if they used the fishing net, they would not provoke too big a reaction from the Spirit Tool, but once they directly used their hands to try to catch hold of it, the Spirit Tool would automatically react, and immediately disappear.
It was indeed a Spirit Tool that had its own spirit.
“Until now, no Spirit Tool has been successfully intercepted?” Ling Han asked Liu Bu Cheng.