Chapter 279: Strange Fluctuations
In the Void Illusion Mountain Range…
Li Langfeng was coughing violently, making him look even skinnier and paler than before.
Every time he coughed, he would spit out a mouthful of filth, which was filled with gooey impurities of different colors.
Seven corpses were lying on the ground under a handful of spatial rifts. From the way they were dressed, they were all from another force in the Realm of Split Void, the Wild Fire.
All seven of them had died at his hands.
Standing amongst the dead bodies, face ghastly and gruesome, Li Langfeng used his psychic awareness to scan the vicinity.
As as Nie Tian and Shi Qing had expected, after spending a short while to recover his battle prowess in the valley, Li Langfeng had chased after them, his primary target having been Nie Tian.
The dark-green energy he had left inside Nie Tian had allowed him to chase him to this location, where he had suddenly lost track of the energy.
What he didn’t know was that this was the place where the frenzied green aura in Nie Tian’s heart had rushed out and devoured his toxic energy.
As the energy was destroyed, he was no longer able to detect Nie Tian’s location.
The reason why he had killed the seven Wild Fire Qi warriors was because he hadn’t been able to press them to give him the whereabouts of Nie Tian and Pei Qiqi.
“They must have headed towards a place where spatial rifts were the most active!” After a quick scan of his surroundings, Li Langfeng rapidly made his decision and floated forward like a ghost roaming the Void Illusion Mountain Range.
Several hours passed…
He arrived at the location where Nie Tian had stopped and wondered which direction they had gone, the one where spatial rifts were numerous and active, or the one which was secluded and rarely visited by people.
Without pausing for a moment, Li Langfeng dashed in the direction where numerous spatial rifts were slithering in the air.
At this point, he finally began to charge in the opposite direction as Nie Tian and Pei Qiqi…
After Shi Qing had parted ways with Nie Tian at the mouth of the mountain valley, he had run at lightning speed in the direction that the other Blood Skull members had left in to chase after the Dark Moon deserters.
As he had hastened on with his journey, he had taken out his Sound Stone from time to time and tried to get in contact with Blood Skull members in the vicinity.
However, the path he had taken was none other than the one Li Langfeng had taken to get to the valley.
In order to get a full understanding of what had happened in the Dark Moon’s base, Li Langfeng had interrogated and slaughtered every Blood Skull member he had found in that area.
Even though Shi Qing hadn’t been able to discover any Blood Skull members following this path, he found Cai Yue via his Sound Stone after marching for a long time.
It wasn’t long before the two of them met in a location where numerous jagged rocks stood in grotesque shapes.
“Uncle Shi!” Shi Qing’s appearance overjoyed Cai Yue, who was originally burning with anxiety.
Ever since Cai Yue had left the mountain valley, she had been attempting to get in contact with any Blood Skull members via her Sound Stone, hoping to find Gu Yu and Cai Yuan and lead them back to the valley as soon as possible to kill Li Langfeng.
However, her unceasing efforts had proven to be fruitless, and she had just been worrying about Shi Qing’s safety.
Shi Qing’s sudden appearance put Cai Yue’s heart at ease. She asked, “How did you escape, Uncle Shi? What happened to that poisonous man?”
Shi Qing, who was covered in blood and looked extremely ghastly, also let out a sigh of relief after seeing Cai Yue unscathed.
The reason he had tricked Cai Yue into leaving was because he had known that she wouldn’t be able to help them.
He had anticipated that Li Langfeng would have killed all the Blood Skull members around the mountain valley, and the other Blood Skull members that had been chasing after Dark Moon deserters wouldn’t return within a short time.
Therefore, the only way to make sure Cai Yue stayed safe had been to send her away.
Furthermore, that reason why he had picked this direction after he had parted ways with Nie Tian was because he was worried that Cai Yue would run into villains while traveling in the Void Illusion Mountain Range by herself.
Now that Cai Yue was standing in front of him, unscathed, Shi Qing said with a relieved tone, “Li Langfeng probably went after Hua Tian.”
“Hua Tian?” Cai Yue went blank for a moment before she asked with knit eyebrows, “Why would he do that? If he wanted to hunt down someone useful, shouldn’t he have gone after Pei Qiqi?”
“Miss Pei sustained heavy injuries, and Hua Tian had to carry her on his back,” Shi Qing explained. “We went our separate ways at the mouth of the mountain valley. The two of them are in the same boat now. I hope they can lose Li Langfeng and survive this calamity. Both of them are talented youngsters. If they are lucky enough to survive Li Langfeng’s pursuit, I suppose both of them will transform and rise to a new level.”
“They’re both talented youngsters?” Cai Yue pursed her lips and said with a disdainful tone, “Perhaps Pei Qiqi can be counted as talented, but that slick Hua Tian is talented too? He didn’t even dare to join the battle when we raided the Dark Moon’s base! The only reason my brother gave him a guest elder’s identity medallion was because he wanted to butter up that bad woman!”
Cai Yuan had never taken Nie Tian seriously. Knowing that Nie Tian was friends with Li Ye and they lived together, she had long since considered Nie Tian and Pei Qiqi to be on the same side and equally as bad.
“That Hua Tian kid is way beyond ordinary. Even I almost misjudged him.” Shi Qing admired Nie Tian from the bottom of his heart.
When he and Pei Qiqi were hanging by a thread, Nie Tian had decisively charged towards Li Langfeng and struck Li Langfeng’s spirit beast skull head-on using his most explosive skill.
Shi Qing had taken a strike from Li Langfeng’s spirit beast skull. Even though he had been in that petrified state, that powerful strike had almost shattered his rock armor.
Therefore, he knew the might of Li Liangfeng’s strike better than anyone else.
However, not only did the clash not kill Nie Tian at that instant, but Li Liangfeng was sent flying backward by the strong impact.
After Li Langfeng had crashed into the ground, he even had to use his secret magic to shield himself with poisonous power and recuperate.
Although Nie Tian had also sustained serious injuries, he had still been able to heft Pei Qiqi onto his back and run out of the valley.
Nie Tian’s explosive punch alone had made Shi Qing see his decisiveness and fierceness, and its might had flabbergasted him.
He doubt that he would be able to find another early Heaven stage warrior in the entire Realm of Split Void who dared to fight Li Langfeng head-on.
“I don’t understand what special qualities that Hua Tian person has.” Cai Yue said with a cold snort. “Even you speak so highly of him! I refuse to believe that he’s a capable person!”
Since Shi Qing was badly injured, he didn’t have the time and energy to explain everything to Cai Yue. Hence, he said, “We need to find Gu Yu and the others as soon as possible and inform them of our encounter with Li Langfeng. Considering Hua Tian and Miss Pei’s strength, I’m afraid that they won’t be able to escape from Li Langfeng alone. If it’s possible, we still need to go and rescue them.”
“What? If they die, they die. Why do we have to save them? It’s not like they are members of the Blood Skull. We won’t be responsible for their deaths!” Cai Yue sounded very discontent.
“You don’t understand.” Shi Qing said with a bitter smile. “Miss Pei’s identity is very special. If she really died in the Void Illusion Mountain Range and her master found out she was on a Blood Skull mission, she wouldn’t let us off easily. Not only that, if that happens, I’m afraid that your brother won’t forgive himself either. No matter what, we need to do our best to save them. Even if we fail, we’ll have a clear conscience at least.”
“Okay…” Cai Yue replied, not fully understanding Shi Qing’s words.
The battle between the Dark Moon and the Blood Skull had made such a loud commotion that numerous Qi warriors who roamed the Void Illusion Mountain Range soon learned about it.,
Via those well-informed people, the other major force in the Realm of Split Void, the Wild Fire, also rapidly learned of what had happened.
On top of a two thousand-meter-tall mountain peak…
Grayish brown rocks had been piled into a handful of roughly-made stone houses, which formed the Wild Fire’s base in the Void Illusion Mountain Range.
Since this part of the mountain range was bitterly cold and snowed year-round, only powerful Qi warriors were able to survive here.
In front of one of the stone houses.
Fu Heng, the highest commander of the Wild Fire’s branch in the Void Illusion Mountain Range, was standing with a fur overcoat on his broad, mountain-like shoulders as his subordinates reported to him.
Freezing wind whizzed by the mountaintop.
After hearing the man’s words, Fu Heng grinned and said, “The Blood Skull couldn’t have raided the Dark Moon’s base for no reason. Either Gu Yu or Ma Jiu must have found something! How can the Wild Fire not be a part of it!”
The forces the Wild Fire, the Blood Skull, and the Dark Moon had deployed in the Void Illusion Mountain Range were roughly equally strong.
Gu Yu, Ma Jiu, and Fu Heng were all at the late Greater Heaven stage, and had a rather good understanding of one another.
The three of them had reached a mutual understanding that they would exercise restraint, and wouldn’t start full-frontal wars with one another unless one of them discovered a brand-new, unexplored spatial rift.
Of course, small scale battles occurred from time to time when their members encountered each other in the Void Illusion Mountain Range.
However, those battles were usually under control, and the casualties were normally acceptable.
Once a full-blown war broke out between the three forces, there had to be a serious reason behind it. It was very unlikely that they would wage wars and fight to the last man because of a dispute over trivial things.
Normally speaking, wars of that scale were usually started over unexplored spatial rifts.
At that time, large numbers of powerful experts would descend upon the Void Illusion Mountain Range from the Land of the Abandoned, Shatter City, and Ash City.
Even the heads of the three forces, who were at the Worldly realm, would personally show up in the Void Illusion Mountain Range to secure their significant interests.
From what Fu Heng could tell, since neither the Blood Skull nor the Dark Moon had assembled powerful forces from Shatter City or the Land of the Abandoned, it was unlikely that they had discovered new realms. Rather, it might be some precious treasures they were fighting over.
“Whatever it is, we need to be a part of it. Otherwise, people may think that we’re afraid of them.” Fu Heng rapidly made up his mind, and arranged for his subordinates to gather a troop, which he would lead to the area where the Dark Moon and Blood Skull members were last seen.
At that moment, Nie Tian and Pei Qiqi were still hiding in the secret stone room of the Blood Skull under the nameless creek, completely unaware of the huge waves their operation had caused.
During the past few days, Nie Tian had been consuming the Golden Stone Rhino’s meat and using the rich flesh power it generated to heal the wounds to his body. At the same time, he had been using spirit stones to replenish his spiritual power.
At this point, he had fully restored the substantial amount of spiritual power he had spent during his battle against Li Langfeng, but the injuries to his fleshy body might take more time to fully recover.
Every time he took out and cooked the Golden Stone Rhino’s meat, Pei Qiqi would toss him a piece of clean meat she had brought with her without saying a word.
Understanding what she meant, Nie Tian would catch the meat and cook it for her.
When they ate, Pei Qiqi would always eat in small bites and remain silent the entire time.
When they were done eating, they would go back to their cultivation without any communication.
After some time, the two of them seemed to become accustomed to this way of being with each other as they both concentrated on recovering their health and strength, getting ready for what awaited them.
This day, Nie Tian was suddenly awoken from his cultivation by a sobbing sound.
He opened his eyes and discovered that Pei Qiqi’s shoulders were trembling, and she was sobbing with her eyes closed, as if she was wallowing in a horrible nightmare.