Chapter 703 - The Unsafe Vine Mountain of Safety
Countless of people from all corners of the Vine Mountain of Safety started evacuating and other than those who were originally near the edge of the mountain, out of 10 who tried to evacuate the Vine Mountain of Safety, not even one manage to do so.
Wei Zidao had almost burnt his entire life span away and was one of the fastest one to escape. At the instance he left the territory of the Immortal Hunters, he had already reached the periphery of the Vine Mountain of Safety.
Even so, a vine still managed to creep up and bind his calf.
Wei Zidao had always been a rogue cultivator and even though his knowledge might not be as great as Shang Hegao and he might not be as resourceful as Pang Hong, he had something the both of them didn’t possess. That was decisiveness.
The second the vine managed to bind up Wei Zidao’s calf, immortal energy was released and his entire calf was instantly detached from his body. In the very next moment, the calfless Wei Zidao was already escaping frantically.
At this moment, the sword qi was nothing to him as what he wanted the most was to evacuate as far as he could.
Behind Wei Zidao was those massive kyoho-like vines starting to gather like a compressed cage for crickets. Any cultivator trapped within this cage would no longer be able to make it out alive.
Not a single drop of blood splattered out because every cultivator who was touched by the vine was absorbed of his or her blood, soul and even fleshly body in the shortest possible time.
Only a rare few like Wei Zidao managed to escape out alive.
"Ai!" Wei Zidao spat out a mouthful of blood before coming to a halt as he swallowed a healing pill.
Behind him, the originally towering and mighty Vine Mountain of Safety had completely disappeared without a trace. The Vine Mountain of Safety had seemingly been compressed down to the ground and everyone who had existed in the Vine Mountain of Safety had vanished with it.
The few cultivators who made it out alive saw Wei Zidao and hurried over to gather around him while helping him up.
In the Sword Prison, the more company the better.
"Revered Lord Wei, what has happened to the Vine Mountain of Safety?" A pale face and blood stained Immortal Reverent asked as his heart still had lingering fears.
A Grand Emperor had no capabilities to resist or fight back against the Vine Mountain of Safety so how truly terrifying was this vine? If he wasn’t already near the periphery of the Vine Mountain of Safety, he wouldn’t have succeeded with his narrow escape.
The remaining weaker survivors were also listening attentatively because they too, had no idea what was going on with the Vine Mountain of Safety.
Wei Zidao finally calmed himself down before saying in a low voice, "It should be a heart left behind by ancient experts. If my guess is right, those vines that you saw were the veins of the heart."
"We have been living in a heart?" Someone asked shockingly.
Nobody answered his question because everyone believed that Wei Zidao wasn’t speaking mindlessly. This was because the Vine Mountain of Safety was actually shaped like a heart.
Wei Zidao was also trembling within because he had personally witnessed how Shang Hegao and Pang Hong was sucked dry of their blood and fleshly body before dying within the mountain. Besides how he was stronger than Pang Hong and Shang Hegao, the reason why he was still alive was because of his decisiveness. However, this was still not the main reason why he managed to escape because the main reason was the four Zhi Nature Pills given by Mo Wuji.
The four Zhi Nature Pills made his primordial spirit and soul much more complete than Pang Hong and Shang Hegao and in terms of rate of recovery, his was also the fastest.
Because of his almost recovered primordial spirit, he was able to burn his life force to escape from the Vine Mountain of Safety and ended up losing only one leg.
It seemed like their guess was right and the reason why Mo Wuji left the Vine Mountain of Safety in advance was probably not just because they wanted to take back their territory but because Mo Wuji had already detected the danger within the Vine Mountain of Safety.
He recalled the time he went to the Sword Qi River with Mo Wuji and how Mo Wuji was deep in thoughts while furrowing his brows after he left the Vine Mountain of Safety. Afterwards, he even walked back into the Vine Mountain of Safety to walk out again.
He finally came to an understanding that Mo Wuji had already suspected something from that moment on.
Previously when Mo Wuji retreated and left so straightforwardly, Wei Zidao thought that it was because Mo Wuji no longer had an alliance and that he had already formed an alliance Pang Hong and Shang Hegao. Come to think of it, it was nothing like that because he believed that even if they hadn’t form the alliance, Mo Wuji would have still choose to leave the Vine Mountain of Safety. When they visited Mo Wuji’s place, he was already preparing to leave so how could things be so coincidental?
Given Mo Wuji’s level of knowledge in array dao, if he wasn’t willing to leave, the combined effort of the three of them might not even be able to break Mo Wuji’s array.
"Revered Lord Wei, where do we go now?" Everyone was silent and a cultivator suddenly asked.
Wei Zidao sighed and said, "The Immortal Hunters is no longer around so everyone can just address me by my name. What Revered Lord? Such a joke."
This incident made him understand that no matter how much power they gathered in the Sword Prison, any alliance would be to no avail in the face of a much more powerful catastrophe like this.
"All of you should go and find Sect Head Mo for protection," Wei Zidao added as he knew that other than relying on Mo Wuji, these few people had nowhere else to go.
"Senior Wei, aren’t you going with us?" The cultivator who was speaking earlier asked.
The truth was that even though he asked Wei Zidao where should they go, he was well aware that finding Sect Head Mo Wuji was the only option left for them.
Wei Zidao shook his hand and said, "You guys go ahead, I won’t be joining you."
After he said that, Wei Zidao instantly walked away and disappeared into the depths of the boundless Sword Prison. He was after all, an advanced Immortal Emperor Stage expert who just destroyed his alliance with Mo Wuji not too long ago before chasing him out of the Vine Mountain of Safety. He wasn’t that shameless to seek protection from Mo Wuji now.
One must know that Mo Wuji exchanged the territory he wanted with Zhi Nature Pills but in the end, Wei Zidao took it back without further notice. Whether or not Mo Wuji already had intentions to leave the Vine Mountain of Safety or not, his action was wrong and disgraceful. Moreover, if an Immortal Emperor like him requests for protection from Mo Wuji, who would be listening to who?
After Wei Zidao left, the strongest person left behind was that Immortal Reverent. As the Immortal Reverent watched Wei Zidao’s back view disappear, he sighed once more, "Let’s go, we shall go and look for Sect Head Mo."
As an Immortal Reverent and also a member of the Devil Hand, he was well aware of the conflict between Mo Wuji and the three primary forces of the Vine Mountain of Safety. Therefore, he could still understand why Wei Zidao was unwilling to seek help from Mo Wuji.
"Kakaka!" Mo Wuji suddenly felt the intensity of sword qi increasing by multiple folds as his bones started to produce splitting sounds. The excruciating pain experienced by Mo Wuji caused him to open his eyes as he was completely awoken.
He looked terrifyingly at his feet as it was currently at the very edge of the whirlpool. However, the whirlpool didn’t actually sweep him inwards.
The endless amount of sword qi was absorbed using his physique tempering technique as it entered his body. Besides the endless amount of sword qi here, there was also an endless amount of immortal energy too.
Mo Wuji instantly understood that those terrifying sword qi from the whirlpool was completely absorbed by him and the whirlpool had momentarily disappeared which was why he stopped.
Presently, he had to focus because he shouldn’t let his bones disintegrate. The moment his bones started to shatter again, he might never be able to enter God Physique Level 4 anymore and might even be swept right into the sword qi whirlpool afterwards.
Mo Wuji forcefully remove his distracting thoughts as well as the danger under his feet as he started circulating both his physique tempering and immortal mortal technique using all his strength. All 108 smaller circulation formed up to become a big one and then this big circulation combined with Mo Wuji’s physique tempering technique managed to absorb all the dense immortal energy from within the sword qi whirlpool.
"Boom!" Mo Wuji’s fleshly body had reached a limit and a valiant aura started surging out from his body and the initially splitting bones and skin started to recover in the next moment.
Sword qi which were originally being absorbed into Mo Wuji’s body were now completely blocked off by Mo Wuji. The immortal elemental energy within his body were rising intensely which led to the explosion of a shackle as Mo Wuji instantaneously charged into the intermediate Grand Luo Immortal Stage.
The berserk whirlpool’s power to engulf could be felt once again as Mo Wuji subconsciously took many steps back and those sword qi which could sweep him away was absorbed into his body again.
During his time at the periphery of the sword qi whirlpool, Mo Wuji’s fleshly body was in the God Physique Level 4 while his cultivation level had reached the intermediate Grand Luo Immortal Stage.
He knew that given his current cultivation level, death would be the only outcome if he were to be swept into the whirlpool.
Having retreated from the periphery of the sword qi whirlpool, Mo Wuji condensed his spiritual eye to look at the sword qi whirlpool and under the whirlpool, the man had actually disappeared.
Mo Wuji’s back started having cold sweat as he quickly sped out of this place. Before he advanced to become an Immortal King, he dared not enter the sword qi whirlpool to check it out.
If he didn’t possess any exceptional cultivation resources, he would not be able to advance to become an Immortal King in a short period of time. It seemed like he should go check for any reaction from the transfer array disc he threw outside the Sword Prison. Mo Wuji guessed that the transfer array disc would not be much of a help but since it was still a possible way out, he had to try his luck.
"May I know if Sect Head Mo is here?" The Immortal Reverent brought about five survivors from the Vine Mountain of Safety to the encampment which Mo Wuji had set up.
Fei Ling walked out once more and the waiting Su Zi’An and co. all stood up.
"You’re Brother Cha?" Fei Ling exclaimed surprisingly at the sight of the Immortal Reverent.
Fei Ling knew this Immortal Reverent called Cha Rui because Fei Ling used to be from the Devil Hand too. Now why would Cha Rui be here? Fei Ling noticed the severely wounded cultivators behind Cha Rui and became even more curious than before.
"Immortal Friend Fei Ling, long time no see," Cha Rui’s voice was slightly hoarse as Cha Rui’s status in the Devil Hand used to be much higher than Fei Ling. At this moment, he was rejoicing at the fact that he didn’t offend Fei Ling before.
"Brother Cha, what are you doing here? Did you decide to leave the Devil Hand too? Aren’t you afraid of Pang Hong? Aren’t you afraid that you wouldn’t be able to return to the Vine Mountain of Safety anymore?" Even till today, Fei Ling still had lingering fears whenever he mentioned about Pang Hong.
Cha Rui sighed, "There is no more Vine Mountain of Safety and no more Devil Hand."
"What do you mean?" Fei Ling thought of the words of Nie Chongan and Jian Mingcheng and his expression changed drastically. If the Vine Mountain of Safety was truly dangerous, this place wasn’t actually very far away from it.