“Where is Little Tong?”
Right after Yu Tong and Feng Luo had left, an old woman walked over unsteadily with a troubled look on her face. She held a serpent staff in her hand as she slowly approached.
“Grandma Shen.”
Numerous experts from the Blood Sect greeted her, one after another, with a humble attitude.
The person who came was Shen Xiu. Her status in the Blood Sect was second only to the sect master. She was also Yu Tong’s master.
The scarlet blood strings that came from underground were precisely the “Earth Web” that she had cast using secret arts. The reason why she had hurried to this place was precisely because she was worried that Yu Tong would act recklessly.
“Yu Tong went to chase after the juniors from the Lingyun Sect.” Yang Yuan answered and asked tactlessly, ”Grandma Shen, the Earth Web… seemed to have been unable to condense completely?”
With Shen Xiu’s cultivation level, if the Earth Web was formed completely, the blood of the Lianqi warriors over the valley would be disordered for at least a quarter of an hour.
Being given so much time, the experts from Blood Sects could start their massacre and acquire an overwhelming advantage.
However, Yang Yuan had noticed that the scarlet blood strings that emerged from the ground hadn’t actually restricted their opponents for very long. Furthermore, the scarlet blood strings also didn’t stretch outside of the valley to pursue Nie Tian and the gang who were escaping.
“Deep below the ground of the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range is the scalding earth lava flame. The activities of the Earth Web are limited everywhere deep underground.” Shen Xiu humbly knitted her brows and continued, “Furthermore, the enormous Heaven Burning Earth Fire Array seems to have permeated deep into the ground. As such, there were still networks of the Heaven Burning Earth Fire Array within the raging magma flame.
“You must not underestimate Ling Bao Court’s enormous Heaven Burning Earth Fire Array. From what I see, this enormous spell doesn’t only cover the valley where the Ling Bao Court resides.”
“The whole Scarlet Flame Mountain Range, including the mountains of dead volcanoes in the surroundings, seem to also be within the coverage of that array.”
“As soon as my Earth Web reached deep below the earth’s core, it was immediately influenced by the network constructed by that array and couldn’t condense into a genuine shape.
As the conversation reached that point, Shen Xiu suddenly looked down at her legs and said, “For some reason, I keep on feeling that there is something odd deep below the ground of the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range. I can’t say for sure what is going on, but I keep having the feeling that that array doesn’t just exist to protect the Ling Bao Court.”
I could sense a kind of… forbidden suppression aura from the network of flame vessels.
“Shen Xiu!”
Not waiting for her to explain her words clearly, the sect master, Hou Zhengchen, suddenly appeared from afar and instantly dashed towards Shen Xiu.
There seemed to be a trace of anxiety and worry in Hou Zhengchen’s eyes. He seemed to not want Shen Xiu to say too much.
The serpent staff in Shen Xiu’s hands abruptly gave off an immense, flourishing, bloody light and immediately flew towards Hou Zhengchen.
……
Below a bald, short mountain in the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range.
“We should rest.” Pan Tao stopped all of a sudden. As he looked at the curtain of the night retreating and the sky slowly becoming bright and clear, he said, “We have hurried our journey for one whole night. Previously everyone already exhausted a large amount of spiritual energy in order to deal with the scarlet blood strings that emerged from the ground. If we only blindly hasten on with our journey and don’t stop to recover our energy, it’ll be hard for us to deal with a sudden outburst or crisis.”
Nie Tian subconsciously released his mental consciousness and sensed his surroundings for a while. Luckily, he didn’t detect any trace of vital fluctuation.
He nodded his head and agreed, “Yeah, everyone needs to get some rest.”
He was taking stock of his surroundings. He saw there were a lot of caves of unequal size on the side of the bald and short mountain. Those caves were dark and gloomy, so the scene inside couldn’t be seen clearly.
“This place is also within the range of the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range. Furthermore, a lot of dormant volcanoes also exist in the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range. It’s said that fire spiritual stones that are rated highly remain in these dormant volcanoes.” An Shiyi noticed his look and explained to him in a soft tone, “The disciples from our Ling Bao Court would often test their luck in the dormant volcanoes and see if they could find highly rated Flame Cloud Stones.”
“It’s also because of this that a lot of caves are drilled open inside the mountain peaks nearby.”
“Every single cave is connected to the midsection or the underground section of the mountain. They have dreamed of getting lucky and obtaining some highly rated Flame Cloud Stones. It’ll have considerable benefits regardless of whether it’s used to refine spiritual weapons or during cultivation.”
Pan Tao also added, “Within the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range, the only volcanoes that truly still have the earth’s core raging flames are the remaining three volcanoes at the Ling Bao Court’s main valley. The seniors in the pavilion suppress the three volcanoes, that can still erupt, with the enormous Heaven Burning Earth Fire Array. They take in the raging flame from the earth’s core to refine spiritual weapons.”
“The remaining volcanoes, after many explorations, have long since not have any possibility of earth flame rising. But, ten thousand years ago, those volcanoes were also red-hot and turbulent.”
“So long as the thick earth’s core flame exists at the mountain peak, the interior part might possibly still produce fire-attributed heaven and earth spiritual materials.
The majority of the spiritual materials have all long since been extracted, leaving behind a very little portion inside the mountain peak. It would require a large consumption of energy as well as very good luck in order for you to be able to obtain it.
Pan Tao explained while guiding everyone, leading everyone into a cave to temporarily rest.
“We can rest for at most twelve hours. After twelve hours, no matter what kind of degree everyone has recovered to, we still have to set off.” An Shiyi raised her voice and shouted.
Without Liu Yan, as well as Shi Yi and Luo Xin, she was the person with the highest cultivation realm among everyone present.
Naturally, she became the leader of the numerous juniors.
Very quickly, everyone had picked a respective cave and hidden their body within their respective cave. All of them used spiritual stones to recover their strength.
Each and every one of the caves were really close to each other. So long as one person spoke, another person would be able to hear it.
The group, who only wanted to quickly leave the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range, wasn’t in the mood to explore the bizarre caves. The fire-attributed spiritual materials that could possibly be left behind didn’t interest them in the slightest. Instead, all of them were concentrating on regaining strength.
Nie Tian was also like this.
After he had looked for a cave and hidden his body within it, he took out a spiritual stone and got ready to recover the spiritual energy in his spiritual sea.
He was about to operate his Lianqi Art, when his expression suddenly changed. Instantly, he guided the animal bone, referred to as ‘Bloodstone’ by Lai Yi, and the Flame Dragon Armor out of his storage bracelet and onto the ground next to him.
Only upon doing all of that did he calm down and begin to absorb the strength within the spiritual stone.
In the middle of practicing, he once again felt the extreme heat from the animal bone. At the same time, he also noticed the vital flesh energy that originated from his body secretly flowing into the Flame Dragon Armor.
The incomparably heavy Flame Dragon Armor gradually released a dark red-colored light, as if it were being raised gently by the power of his flesh.
After a while, he suddenly realized that the animal bone was becoming increasingly hot. Furthermore, it was also giving off a bright fiery sparks.
“Huh?!”
He felt slightly shocked and sent out a thread of consciousness to observe it. He immediately noticed that there were numerous fiery threads wriggling and twisting inside the animal bone, gathering towards the blood drop that was inside of it.
The drop of blood that had brought him in and out of the mysterious realm was originally supposed to have shrunk a lot because it had exhausted a huge amount of energy.
However, at that moment, following the movement of the fiery threads inside the animal bone, a kind of monstrous attractive force, that he could clearly feel, seemed to be flourishing little by little.
Not long after, he noticed that there was a growing number of fiery threads inside his cave.
He closed his eyes all of a sudden and observed the changes with his mental consciousness. He noticed that the fiery threads appeared to be coming from the gloomy stone path that was behind him. The stone path seemed to be leading to the deepest part of the short mountain.
Following the huge amount of fiery threads continuously gathering towards the cave, gradually flowing into the animal bone, he realized that the blood drop within the animal bone was gradually growing.
“Could it be…”
Nie Tian, who had been observing for a while, opened his eyes. He suddenly thought about the weird incident that had happened in Nie Family’s mine.
At that time, when he was in the Nie Family’s mine, the animal bone had been placed on top of a Fire Cloud Stone and surprisingly drew out all of the flame energy from all of the Fire Cloud Stones in the entire mine, even though they hadn’t been extracted yet.
This time, the fiery threads that flew here from deep within the stone path clearly were also flame energy.
Furthermore, the flame energy seemed to be even more exquisite.
- Dong! -
Right as he became secretly astonished, the animal bone flew out abruptly and instantly embedded itself into the concave hole on the chest plate of the Flame Dragon Armor.
The Flame Dragon Armor suddenly released surging, fiery sparks, as if it had suddenly transformed into a burning sun, transmitting flame fluctuations that were extremely disturbing.
Not waiting for him to react to it, the Flame Dragon Armor flew up spontaneously. It headed towards the gloomy and endless underground stone path.
Nie Tian opened his eyes wide. He didn’t understand what had just happened and could only stand up and quickly inform An Shiyi, who was in the cave beside his, ”I have encountered an emergency situation! When the time has come, you guys don’t have to wait for me. You guys will be fine leaving on your own!”
“Nie Tian! What are you doing?” An Shiyi shouted.
The members of the group, who were still recovering, were woken one after another. Each and every one of them emerged from their cultivating state.
Five seconds later, everyone had gathered around the cave where Nie Tian was in. Yet they realized that they had already lost sight of Nie Tian.
“Really! Don’t worry about me! You guys can leave in advance!”
Nie Tian’s voice came through lightly and fleetingly from the stone path that led to the deeper parts of this cave.
Zheng Bin and Han Xin, who were from the Black Mist Palace, both had unsightly looks on their faces as they looked at the gloomy and bottomless stone path.
“This guy, he always manages to get in all sorts of quarrels!” Han Xin couldn’t hold it in any longer as she complained, “Throughout this whole journey, he has been the reason that everyone has wasted their time wherever they go! Without him, perhaps we would have already long since passed through the cave that was guarded by Gan Kang and left the Ling Bao Court before the main gate was even opened.”
“Had it not been because of him, perhaps Grandma Weng wouldn’t have been trapped in such a critical circumstance!”
Han Xin had repressed her emotions for a long time. When she saw Nie Tian creating trouble again at a crucial moment, she finally shouted angrily, “Those who are willing to wait, wait. In any case, I won’t stay here and wait for his return!”
Zheng Bin’s expression was gloomy, he said, “Even if he desires the fire spiritual stones that are left behind, he shouldn’t test his luck right now. In addition to that, the Fire Cloud Stones at this place should have long since been obtained by the disciples from the Ling Bao Court. If there really are any left behind, it won’t be something that can be found in a moment or two.’
Aside from the matter with the Fire Cloud Stones, he couldn’t think of any other reason that would make Nie Tian stay behind and refuse to leave.
He was deeply disappointed in Nie Tian and he didn’t want to waste any more time. “Everyone, we will take our leave now.” After he finished his words, both him and Han Xin took the lead and left the group. They rushed out of the cave and headed in the direction of the Black Mist Palace.
Inside the cave, only the An sisters, Pan Tao, Jiang Lingzhu, and Ye Gumo were left.
The party looked at each other in dismay.
“We’ll stay behind and wait for him.” An Shiyi sat down on her buttocks and said calmly, “His recklessness and unruliness are the reasons why us sisters are still alive. Without his unruliness, Elder Wu Xing wouldn’t have paid attention to us, and we might have already been murdered by the Blood Sect’s experts. Therefore, no matter how long it’ll take him, we’ll still wait for him.”
An Ying also sat down without saying a word.
Pan Tao gave a bitter smile. He shook his head and also sat down without saying anything more.
Jiang Lingzhu and Ye Gumo took a quick glance at each other.
“That guy is our little martial uncle, and according to the seniority in the clan, all of us need to listen to him.” Jiang Lingzhu hated it to the point where her teeth started to itch. But, she too didn’t raise any issues regarding her desire to leave and sat down and waited. However, she cursed in a low voice. Each and every sentence was directed towards Nie Tian’s recklessness, cursing Nie Tian for being unable to differentiate good from bad and acting recklessly. His greed in getting money had reached its peak.
“Ahh.” Ye Gumo gave out a long sigh, but he too could only obediently sit down and wait.
……
Translator: Amazon Aaron
Editors: Zesty Zach and Slutty Sietse
From XianXiaWorld