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Huge energy blasts never stopped hammering at the luminescent walls of the trap ward. Waves and waves of Spiritual Power emission surged from inside and the brightness of the walls was growing dimmer at speeds that the naked eye could see.
Lu Ye had employed eight ward keystones and several more flags for this trap ward, but it was just a hastily-constructed magical ward that was subsistent on Spirit Stones, making it mediocre at best.
The strength of a magical ward had everything to do with both the amounts of Spiritual Power stored in the ward and the richness of ambient Spiritual Qi in the atmosphere. The more Spiritual Power was used in the ward and the richer the ambient Spiritual Qi in the air around it was, the stronger and more potent the magical ward would be.
That would make newly-constructed wards weakest because they had not yet been able to draw enough Spiritual Qi from the atmosphere—with or without the addition of Spirit Stones.
With time, a magical ward would store enough Spiritual Power to allow its potency to grow to its peak.
The biggest advantage of this particular trap ward that Lu Ye had constructed was its smaller range of barely 60 meters. That had helped to enhance its strength.
Nevertheless, it would take more than that to fully thwart a Cloud River Realm Ninth-Order like Wei Que.
In less than twenty seconds, the glow of the dome of the trap ward turned fully dark before it finally shattered.
Liberated from his temporary confinement, Wei Que took to the sky and began streaking towards where Lu Ye and the others had vanished.
He could not allow this chance to slip past his fingers. It was only luck that he had managed to stumble into Lu Ye and this chance could never come by again.
But as far as Wei Que was concerned, he was confident. The bunch of Third- and Fourth-Orders might have fled but even a twenty-second headstart wouldn’t prevent him from catching up.
He gazed into the distance and spied a few sparkles of light in the distance, recognizing his fleeing quarry. Channeling his power, Wei Que turned into a streaking shooting star himself to give chase.
At the same time, Lu Ye jerked his head around. He had felt a dangerous presence incoming and seeing a speck of light in the distance coming their way, he knew that Wei Que had managed to free himself from the trap ward.
But it was as he had expected; the trap ward that he had constructed could only delay a Ninth-Order for twenty seconds at most.
Nevertheless, that was all the time he needed.
All three of them ignored the imminent threat and focused on gaining as much speed as possible, flying quickly and covering more than a dozen miles before they finally arrived at their destination.
They landed just outside the cave and dashed inside, making for its innermost caverns where they stood together in the Teleportation Ward and activated it.
The lines of the magical ward shone with a sudden radiance; a magical glow that traced every single line of the ward while illuminating the rock chamber. Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan could only watch with awe and surprise. They had used the Divine Opportunity Column to travel, but never anything like this, hence the fresh and new experience.
The well-seasoned Amber lifted both its paws and wrapped them around Lu Ye’s neck, its citrine eyes palpitating with anticipation.
As the Teleportation Ward began operating, Lu Ye ripped Inviolable out of its sheath, sending a glowing scythe that darted towards the spot where the explosive wards were.
A deafening bang rocked the entire cave amid an eruption of searing flames and blinding brilliance that caused rocks and debris to crash down from the ceiling. By the time the tumult died down, the place had turned into utter chaos.
Wei Que arrived ten seconds later, rushing into the cave hurriedly. But Lu Ye and the others were long gone. All he could find were broken rocks strewn everywhere.
[Where the hell are they?!]
Wei Que gasped to himself, his face fraught with consternation.
He was positively certain that Lu Ye and his companions had landed here just now. He had seen them entering this cave when he was still in the air before a thunderous explosion ensued. Yet when he came in here, all of them had vanished!
Finding that unbelievable, he searched the place, going even to the deepest-most recesses of the cave system and ultimately finding a dead end. Still, he could not find the slightest hints of his quarry’s whereabouts.
One minute ago, they were all here, and yet they were all gone!
Wei Que hastily left the cave. He peered around for a few seconds before he determined a bearing and soared into the air in that direction, still unable to come to terms with Lu Ye and his companion’s disappearing act!
[They must be somewhere nearby!] he thought, [And I must find them!]
Meanwhile, inside another subterranean cavern more than a hundred meters underground two hundred miles away, the unseen lines of the Teleportation Ward traced on the ground came alive with a sudden dazzling and intense incandescence. The air around the Ward warped and three figures materialized almost miraculously.
The moment their feet hit solid ground, Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan staggered so unsteadily that they nearly fell, their faces sickly pale and aghast.
None of them were hurt during the encounter with Wei Que. But it was the terrifying sensation of having nothing under their feet during the magical conveyance here that had them both feeling as if they had been thrust down a bottomless abyss. It felt so real and vivid.
But more importantly, neither of them knew if they should be channeling their Spiritual Power with fear that it might disrupt the conveyance process, despite how being unready greatly unsettled them. Especially when what seemed like a split-second process felt more like an eternal and precipitous descent into a bottomless pit to them.
Now they understood why Amber clutched onto Lu Ye as soon as the conveyance process began. It must have learned from the many times it traveled all around the Colosseum with Lu Ye.
But before they could fully recover from the ordeal of the process, the bluish glow from the back of their hands illuminated the jagged and rough surface of the cave floor.
Still within the circle of the Teleportation Ward, all three of them tensed warily.
That their Battlefield Imprints were reacting in unison would mean that they were not alone and whoever was nearby, he or she must be a Cultivator of the Thousand Demon Ridge.
With their innate and remarkable senses they noticed there really was someone nearby.
Just a little more than fifty meters away, He Bing was sitting alone on the ground, recuperating quietly.
He came to this cave just four hours ago and after making sure that this place was empty, he had decided to stop and rest there.
He had no companion, and as with all other Seventh-Orders, he was at an impasse. Being alone basically precluded him from being able to compete for a good position on the Carnage Roster. Getting on the Roster was doable, but he didn’t expect that he would be high enough to win anything worth the trouble.
Therefore, he chose to focus his efforts on the Token of Providence events as well as all other Endowments that appeared all over the Colosseum. At times, he would be lucky enough to stumble upon weaker Grand Sky Coalition Cultivators whom he could kill and get a good haul from the loot.
At times, when Fate wished to test him, he would be faced with opponents he could barely defeat. Nevertheless, as Seventh-Orders, escaping unscathed from enemy Eighth- and Ninth-Orders remained possible. He Bing would not have chosen to operate alone if he was not confident enough in his abilities and strength.
He was just having a moment of solitude in the peacefulness of the cave when the darkness within was broken. It was a magical ward and before he could comprehend what was going on, three figures appeared within it.
He Bing’s eyes went wide. [What the hell?! How did these three people just come out of nowhere like that?!]
But he quickly collected himself and his brow cocked with interest. He had understood something.
[These three people must have used some sort of Teleportation Ward! That must be what the glowing lines that appeared were!]
[But a Cloud River Realm Cultivator skilled enough to construct something as complex as a Teleportation Ward?! Interesting!] He Bing gradually rose to his feet.
It was Lu Ye who saw He Bing first and he cursed quietly to himself. The enemy was alone and the timing could not have been any worse for them to encounter a lone wolf right here and now. There was no telling what rank the stranger was, but he must be at least a Seventh-Order.
He could still remember the last time he was surprised by the presence of a Thousand Demon Ridge enemy during his escape using a Teleportation Ward and he certainly did not expect it to happen again so soon.
But as much as he was surprised, it wasn’t incomprehensible. If he had found this cave, then anyone could find it too. From his initial posture, the stranger looked like he was just here for a rest, although there was no telling how long he had been here.
Lu Ye was lucky last time that his opponent wasn’t too powerful and with Yi Yi’s help, he had defeated him and survived. But whether or not he would repeat that feat again today remained to be seen.
He could only hope that the enemy was not an Eighth- or even a Ninth-Order or they would be dead meat.
Hence, the same moment He Bing rose to his feet, Lu Ye wildly willed his Teleportation Ward to activate once more to send them elsewhere.
Each and every Teleportation Ward that he had constructed was linked to at least two other Wards. The one that they had used to come here was obviously destroyed to prevent Wei Que from divining their whereabouts, but there should at least be one more that he could use to escape to.
But the next second, he felt his heart skip a beat.
He could not pick up any signs of another Teleportation Ward connected to this one!
What a string of unfortunate events!
Not only had they stumbled into an enemy that was likely a Seventh-Order, at least, but the Teleportation Ward could no longer be used! That he could not sense its link to the rest of its counterparts could only mean that the others had been destroyed.
There was no way out.
His luck had been so good. But all of a sudden, it had taken a plunge.
For starters, it was unpredictable what would happen if they were to fight here. Engaging in a battle could result in the entire rock chamber caving in and collapsing on them, regardless of the outcome. All four of them could be buried alive here.
Lu Ye lifted a hand to stroke Amber.
Li Baxian stood in front of Lu Ye, shielding him. “This place doesn’t seem suitable for a fight, my friend. It’s cramped and it’s in danger of crashing down. What do you think?” he called.
Behind his mask, Li Baxian was grimacing grimly at their fate. They had just jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. He did not know what went wrong with the Teleportation Ward, but he was right: this really wasn’t the ideal place to start a fight.
Furthermore, he had the same suspicion as Lu Ye. If the enemy was alone, that would mean that he must be a formidable opponent with might that not even the collective strength of all three of them might prevail against.
If they could pacify and calm the enemy down, they might be able to walk away from this unscathed.
He Bing seized his spear and thrust it down on the ground to intimidate everyone, exuding an aura of power and force. “Do you think you mice are a threat to me?” he grinned.
His Spiritual Power churned. He Bing really was a Seventh-Order.
Lu Ye and his companions exhaled with relief.
They were eased by the notion that the enemy was a Seventh-Order. At the very least, the situation wasn’t as dismal as they dreaded. If He Bing was an Eighth- or even a Ninth-Order, then a victory might only be possible at the cost of their own lives.
Nevertheless, that did not make this an easy battle at all. Lu Ye and his group had jointly defeated a Sixth-Order before, but fighting a Seventh-Order was different. None of them had any confidence at all. More importantly, Wei Que must still be hunting for them. A Ninth-Order could easily cover the distance of two hundred miles. So if a fight were to break out now, the commotion could easily attract Wei Que’s, or anyone else’s, attention if they were nearby, assuming the cave managed to withstand the abuse of a fight here.
“Impudence!”
Lu Ye and his companions maintained their silence, but this only served to embolden He Bing. “Sneaky scoundrels,” he snorted, “Show yourselves! Remove those masks this instant!”
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