Chapter 308: Edge
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Spiritual Eye Technique!
A glint flashed in Wu Yongzhao’s pupils, and through his eyes, the distant scene rapidly zoomed in. He saw Liao Hanqin and the several members of the previous Primordial Sword Sect.
Several thoughts crossed Wu Yongzhao’s mind. His earlier suspicions were confirmed; Dong Xiuzhi and the other person had indeed been killed by Liao Hanqin. Otherwise, the three members of the Primordial Sword Sect would not have survived.
However, there were still a few unresolved issues, but now they seemed unimportant. The plan to quietly nibble away at the forces of the Immortal Cloud Sword Sect had failed since they had been discovered.
A single wrong move had made their situation extremely difficult, if not an outright defeat.
As if sensing the intrusion, Liao Hanqin’s gaze suddenly clashed with Wu Yongzhao’s Spiritual Eye Technique, and Wu Yongzhao’s eyes narrowed as his technique was immediately broken.
“Split up! 1’11 hold off Liao Hanqin!”
Wu Yongzhao turned to the others, then sprinted away. He could escape, but the others would likely be caught by Liao Hanqin and killed one by one.
Only by delaying Liao Hanqin for a moment could the others have a chance to survive.
“Agreed!”
The three remaining members of the Divine Flame Sect exchanged glances, and with swift movements, they headed in different directions. This way, even if they were pursued, they could avoid being caught all at once.
Wu Yongzhao stood still, waiting to get a clear view of Liao Hanqin and his companions. At that moment, his spiritual sword in hand suddenly emitted an intense aura, and his sword intent soared, filling the surroundings.
The group of people charging toward them sensed this aura and involuntarily slowed down, except for Liao Hanqin, who maintained his speed and headed straight for Wu Yongzhao.
*
*Clang!
Liao Hanqin’s spiritual sword at his waist leaped into his hand with a sword’s cry, forcefully suppressing Wu Yongzhao’s momentum. Within a radius of several hundred meters, their auras clashed and competed fiercely as they approached each other.
Their cultivation levels were similar, both on the verge of breaking into the mid-stage of the Aperture Tempering realm. Their cultivation technique proficiency was also quite comparable, as the history between the Divine Flame Sect and the Immortal Cloud Sword Sect dated back a long time.
What was crucial was that both of them wielded top-grade spiritual swords.
Their battle was like the clash of two evenly matched opponents, making it difficult to determine a clear winner through ordinary sparring. Only a life-and-death struggle could possibly decide the outcome.
“Liao Hanqin, I’ve heard of your reputation for a long time. This place is a bit cramped. How about we find a better location to see how good Immortal Cloud’s swordsmanship really is?”
Wu Yongzhao laughed loudly, leaped into action, and headed in a different direction, seemingly trying to outflank the others from behind.
“You go after the others!” Liao Hanqin’s brows furrowed slightly; Wu Yongzhao was forcing him to stay behind. If he pursued the others, Wu Yongzhao could easily circle around and attack from behind. Here, besides him, none of the others would be a match for Wu Yongzhao.
“Understood!”
Liao Hanqin’s group, including Liao Hanqin himself, consisted of a total of five people. Currently, they were split into pairs, each pair chasing after a member of the Divine Flame Sect.
Chen Fei and his two companions followed the group with fewer people and continued to pursue ahead. However, the others didn’t have high expectations for them. Two of them were severely injured, and Chen Fei had only recently broken through to the early Aperture Tempering realm.
As they chased for some distance, Chen Fei’s group didn’t slack off, always keeping pace with the Immortal Cloud Sword Sect. However, they had lost a bit of an advantage and eventually lost track of the Divine Flame Sect member they were chasing.
Chen Fei stood still and looked back at the location where Liao Hanqin and Wu Yongzhao were dueling. It was getting distant, and their senses were becoming blurry. They could only vaguely sense the aura of top-grade spiritual weapons and the surging elemental forces of Liao Hanqin and Wu Yongzhao.
Chen Fei now had twenty acupoints open, which in the early stages of the Aperture Tempering realm was already quite impressive. Even if they weren’t compared to independent cultivators, within various sects, they were considered experienced cultivators at the early Aperture Tempering realm.
However, when compared to Liao Hanqin and Wu Yongzhao, who were on the verge of breaking through, Chen Fei’s cultivation was undeniably much weaker. Moreover, the power of top-grade spiritual weapons gave Liao Hanqin and Wu Yongzhao the strength of a mid-stage Aperture Tempering realm cultivator.
The only way Chen Fei could compensate for this disadvantage was his level of understanding of cultivation techniques and the immense strength bestowed by the Suppressing Dragon Elephant.
An hour later, everyone regrouped.
The three members of the Divine Flame Sect had successfully eluded capture and were not pursued. Similarly, Wu Yongzhao had not been detained by Liao Hanqin.
Since their strengths were evenly matched, Wu Yongzhao had no intention of engaging in a life-and-death struggle with Liao Hanqin. He seized an opportunity to escape, and Liao Hanqin did not insist on keeping him.
“Senior Brother Liao, what should we do now?” the others looked to Liao Hanqin for guidance.
Liao Hanqin furrowed his brows. What he was most concerned about now was the fate of the Aperture Tempering realm disciples from their sect. Wu Yongzhao’s strength was beyond what the other disciples could handle. If they encountered him, their chances of survival were slim.
“Search the area and see if there are any traces,” Liao Hanqin said with a deep voice after some consideration.
After the time it took for an incense stick to burn, the group found two places where battles had occurred. However, the remnants of these battles were so mixed that it was difficult to determine who had fought there.
At most, they could discern that the battles had been short-lived, indicating that the strength of the parties involved was on vastly different levels.
Everyone couldn’t help but think of Wu Yongzhao, who seemed to be in a league of his own when compared to other early Aperture Tempering relam cultivators.
Liao Hanqin’s expression grew increasingly grave. Although they had limited information to work with, the few clues they had pointed unmistakably in one direction.
Two hours later, in a newly discovered cave, Chen Fei and his two companions sat cross-legged. Meanwhile, Feng Xiupu and Wei Yantao were both in meditation, healing their injuries.
Their injuries were actually quite severe from a night of strenuous activity, and they had been pushing through the pain. Now that they finally had some time to rest, both of them immediately started channeling their cultivation techniques to mend their injuries.
The disciples of the Immortal Cloud Sword Sect were in another cave nearby, discussing their plans for the next steps in the mystic realm. The appearance of the Divine Flame Sect had disrupted all their previous plans.
Outside, the sky was gradually brightening. Chen Fei slowly opened his eyes, his gaze calm.
The plan to shift blame onto the Immortal Cloud Sword Sect had been successful. Since the moment Liao Hanqin and Wu Yongzhao encountered each other, the outcome had been largely determined.
The plan was not intricate, but due to the relentless conflict between the Immortal Cloud Sword Sect and the Divine Flame Sect, the execution of the plan became straightforward.
Feng Xiupu and Wei Yantao gradually regained consciousness, and their injuries had finally stabilized, alleviating concerns of further deterioration. However, a complete recovery would likely take a considerable amount of time.
In their current condition, it was evidently unsuitable to continue staying within the mystic realm. If another fierce battle occurred, their injuries would inevitably worsen, and they might even lose their lives.
“The mystic realm can’t be opened anymore?” Wei Yantao asked with some surprise about the location of the mystic realm’s exit. The mystic realm usually had a one-month cycle for opening and closing, but it could be temporarily opened in emergencies.
“It seems to be related to how the Divine Flame Sect’s members entered. The rules of the mystic realm seem to have changed,” Liao Hanqin said with a slight frown. He had initially intended to inform the others about the situation inside the mystic realm and even send reinforcements to hunt down Wu Yongzhao and his group. However, unexpectedly, the mystic realm couldn’t be opened again.
“Can it be opened in a month?” Feng Xiupu inquired.
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It can be opened in a month,” Liao Hanqin nodded. But having the entrance and exit times fixed could introduce many uncertainties.
Unable to leave, Chen Fei could only take Feng Xiupu and Wei Yantao to find the other members of the Immortal Cloud Sword Sect. Fortunately, after some inquiries, the three of them found Ren Zhongyang by a lakeside.
“How did the two of you get injured?” Ren Zhongyang’s face changed when he saw Feng Xiupu and Wei Yantao. Such severe injuries were quite rare.
“I almost didn’t make it due to the Divine Flame Sect’s attack,” Wei Yantao sighed.
“The Divine Flame Sect is also in the mystic realm?” Ren Zhongyang furrowed his brow.
“A fair number of them came. We initially wanted to exit the mystic realm directly, but we found that the rules of the mystic realm had changed. We can only wait for a month for the exit to open,” Feng Xiupu explained, shaking his head.
Ren Zhongyang’s frown deepened. It seemed there was hardly any good news.
Ren Zhongyang already had two elders from the Primordial Sword Sect by his side, and with Chen Fei’s group joining him, the team had suddenly grown in numbers. This allowed Feng Xiupu and Wei Yantao to recuperate with a sense of security, knowing that there were enough people to look out for each other.
On the other hand, Liao Hanqin couldn’t transmit messages outside the mystic realm. He began organizing various sects within the mystic realm to search for the whereabouts of the Divine Flame Sect members.
However, for some reason, whether due to the mystic realm’s vastness or other factors, after several days, it seemed as though the Divine Flame Sect members had vanished without a trace. Despite their intensive search, they found no signs of them.
This relentless search eventually confirmed Liao Hanqin’s suspicions about Zhu Zixiang and the others being killed by the Divine Flame Sect. This realization brought both sorrow and anger to Liao Hanqin.
However, no matter how they searched, they couldn’t find the Divine Flame Sect members. Many people began to cast suspicious glances toward the Half-Bottle Mountain.
In the mystic realm, every location had been searched except for the Half-Bottle Mountain. The unsettling aura emanating from it discouraged some of the Body Refining realm disciples from approaching. Hence, it was inadvertently overlooked during the search.
Compared to the Body Refining realm disciples, the Aperture Tempering realm disciples were more sensitive to the Half-Bottle Mountain’s aura. They all understood that the Half-Bottle Mountain was far from ordinary, so none of them had ventured up alone.
While Liao Hanqin organized the Aperture Tempering realm disciples to continue searching for any traces of the Divine Flame Sect, he also gathered manpower to prepare for an expedition to Half-Bottle Mountain.
On the side of the Primordial Sword Sect, Ren Zhongyang handled the communication with the Immortal Cloud Sword Sect, while Chen Fei found a cave to focus on cultivation.
Within the mystic realm, apart from Half-Bottle Mountain, most of the spiritual materials in other places had been exhausted. Therefore, in the past few days, Chen Fei didn’t venture out to search for spiritual materials but instead utilized his time to refine and consume all the spirit herbs he had acquired in the preceding days.
The results were evident. Chen Fei’s acupoints directly opened up three more, bringing the total number of acupoints to twenty-three.
In addition to advancing in his cultivation, the Qianyuan Sword was continuously evolving.
First, it absorbed the essence of the lower-grade spirit sword directly. Without stopping, Chen Fei let the Qianyuan Sword continue to absorb Dong Xiuzhi’s middle-grade spirit sword.
After absorbing more than half, the Qianyuan Sword reached the limit of a lower-grade spirit sword.
The next step was advancing to a middle-grade spirit sword..