Chapter 232: Ethereal Swords
Disappointed, Nie Tian could only follow Pei Qiqi and Li Ye as the three of them marched out again.
With Pei Qiqi there to lead them, Nie Tian and Li Ye didn’t have to worry too much about the spatial rifts that slithered right above their heads as they traveled forward.
“Why do you think that man found that place, senior martial sister?” Li Ye suddenly asked.
“Are you talking about the spirit jade mine?” Pei Qiqi asked, not turning her head to look at Li Ye.
“Yeah.” Li Ye sounded puzzled. “We went to great lengths to find that spirit jade mine. The terrain in that area is extremely complicated. It’s almost impossible to get through. I don’t understand how those Wild Fire people found it.”
“We can find it, so can others. There’s nothing to understand.” Pei Qiqi said indifferently.
Upon hearing her words, Nie Tian’s expression flickered as he suddenly realized the information the Dark Moon member had given Pei Qiqi earlier was indeed of no value to her, since that spirit jade mine had been Pei Qiqi and Li Ye’s destination the entire time.
Nie Tian turned to Li Ye and asked, “Do members of the Wild Fire and Dark Moon come to the Void Illusion Mountain Range a lot?”
“Of course,” Li Ye answered without thinking. “The Wild Fire, Dark Moon, and Blood Skull all have small teleportation portals set up in the Void Illusion Mountain Range so that they can save themselves the trouble of journeying from their bases to here.
“It’s because of those teleportation portals that they can send their members to explore the Void Illusion Mountain Range.
“Of course, unlike before, the Void Illusion Mountain Range is no longer filled with spiritual materials, and it’s almost impossible to find any new dimensions through those floating spatial rifts.
“However, people still like to try out their luck in remote corners of the mountain range where it’s more dangerous, but less explored.
“Furthermore, strange items shoot out of those spatial rifts from time to time, most of which can be used to forge high grade spiritual tools.
“It’s just that the Void Illusion Mountain Range has become more and more fatal. On one hand, this is the place where those strong spirit beasts that survived the horrible environment live. On the other, those spatial rifts often become violent for no apparent reason, and with their terrifying destructiveness, they can devour any human who dares to approach in the blink of an eye.”
Li Ye explained everything to Nie Tian as a way to kill time while the three of them traveled forward.
A short while passed…
Pei Qiqi stopped again and said, “Someone is here.”
Upon hearing her words, Nie Tian unleashed his psychic awareness to scan the vicinity.
However, no matter how hard he tried, he failed to detect anything.
That was when he came to realize that the strange spatial energy fluctuations in the Void Illusion Mountain Range significantly undermined the accuracy and range of his psychic awareness, but as a master of spatial magics, Pei Qiqi didn’t have that problem.
SHEW!
A moment later, Pei Qiqi suddenly sped up, as she didn’t want to slow herself down just to wait for Nie Tian and Li Ye.
Upon seeing that, Nie Tian, who had gained nothing so far, dashed after her at his fastest speed possible.
FIZZ! FIZZ!
Under the slithering spatial rifts, Nie Tian saw six members of the Wild Fire standing atop a few giant, irregular rocks in a field filled with rubble.
Each and every one of those Heaven stage Qi warriors emitted an intense, murderous aura.
“Pei Qiqi!” Their expressions flickered as they caught sight of Pei Qiqi.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Nie Tian and Li Ye arrived shortly after Pei Qiqi.
Unlike last time, Pei Qiqi didn’t seemed to be in a hurry to attack them this time. Instead, she seemed to be pondering something while looking up at the numerous interweaving spatial rifts that were swimming closely above their head.
Li Ye also looked up, and a grim expression could be seen on his face.
Nie Tian was puzzled by their behavior. However, from Pei Qiqi and Li Ye’s expressions, he assumed that something was happening within those spatial rifts.
Pei Qiqi retracted her gaze and the wisp of her psychic awareness that she had sent into one of the spatial rifts, as it appeared that she had learned the truth. “Who’s in there?”
The expression of a Qi warrior from the Wild Fire flickered upon hearing Pei Qiqi’s inquiry. “How do you know there are people in there?”
The fat Li Ye let out a cold harrumph and said, “We found the spirit jade mine long ago, and you’re asking us how we know? You six are watchers, aren’t you? How many of you are in there, mining Space Spirit Jades? What cultivation stages are they at? Be honest, and you shall live!”
Nie Tian’s expression flickered as he thought to himself, “The mine is in one of the spatial rifts?! And what are Space Spirit Jades?”
“Actually, we only need one mouth that talks.” Seeing that none of the six people were willing to say anything, Pei Qiqi grew impatient, and once again summoned her four flying swords from within her ring of holding.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Without even the slightest delay, the swords shot towards four of them.
The moment the six Wild Fire members saw the swords, their faces turned pale with fright, and they couldn’t help but cry out, “Ethereal Swords!”
Nie Tian’s eyes widened as he became amazed by the way the swords traveled in the air.
They flew straight towards their targets for a short while before suddenly vanishing into thin air, as if they had entered another dimension, where even their auras were completely untraceable.
Nie Tian couldn’t determine the location of the swords no matter how hard he tried via his vision or his psychic awareness.
PUFF! PUFF! PUFF!
When the swords appeared in Nie Tian’s sight again, they had already pierced into the four Wild Fire Qi warrior’s necks, killing them on the spot.
Furthermore, the four victims weren’t even the ones that the swords had originally aimed at in the first place!
“Ethereal Swords…” Nie Tian subconsciously touched his own neck as a rush of coldness ran through his body. Dread could be seen in his eyes as he looked at Pei Qiqi.
From what he could tell, Pei Qiqi was able to temporarily hide her Ethereal Swords in the void, so as to prevent their victims from determining their position.
When they appeared again after traveling briefly in another dimension, they had already pierced into their victims’ flesh.
Therefore, it was when the four Ethereal Swords disappeared that they became unstoppable.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Two Ethereal Swords pulled themselves out of their victims’ necks without the least bit of blood on them. Without any hesitation, they flew towards the remaining two Qi warriors from the Wild Fire.
“Who’s in there?” Pei Qiqi asked indifferently. “What cultivation levels are they at? I won’t ask again.”
Their mental defenses collapsed when the two of them saw the Ethereal Swords disappear shortly after they shot towards them. Thus, they scrambled to answer Pei Qiqi’s question.
“We have four people in there! One at the early Greater Heaven stage and three at the late Heaven stage!”
“The early Greater Heaven stage expert is our exalted Yang Ling.”
“They went in an hour ago. They put us here as scouts, and told us to collect Space Spirit Jades that fly out of the spatial rifts.”
“Due to the special circumstances, they can’t use their spiritual power while they’re in there. Once they do, it will cause violent changes to the spatial rift and make it extremely unstable and dangerous!”
“That is all that we know. Please, let us go!”
The two Heaven stage members of the Wild Fire, who had been roisterous in their daily lives, had even lost their will to fight facing Pei Qiqi.
“Yang Ling!” Li Ye’s eyebrows furrowed as he said, “Senior martial sister, that guy isn’t easy to deal with.”
Pei Qiqi said, smiling, “He’s hard to deal with when we’re out here, but it’s a whole other story if we fight him in there.”
PUFF! PUFF!
The disappeared two swords suddenly showed up and pierced into the two Wild Fire members’ hearts while they were still fighting to appease Pei Qiqi.
All six members of the Wild Fire died by Pei Qiqi’s Ethereal Swords.
“Time to loot the dead.” Nie Tian’s eyes lit up as he rushed to one of the bodies in an attempt to loot their valuables.
“Stop!” Pei Qiqi’s face grew long as she called out, “Don’t you know the rule? I killed them in battle, which means all the spoils of battle belong to me!
“If you want to gain a fortune, kill someone yourself!
“And all the belongings of those who you killed with your own strength will belong to you.”
“Hua Tian, listen to senior martial sister. That is the rule.” Li Ye hastily mediated between the two of them.
Nie Tian, who was already halfway to one of the corpses, stopped and, with an embarrassed smile on his face, said, “Fine.”
Then, he watched as Pei Qiqi slowly walked to the corpse that she had set her mind on and started searching for spiritual materials.
Only until she had looted every valuable item from the six bodies did she rise up and say, “Alright, let’s get inside.”