Chapter 219 – Mantis Stalks Cicada
There was no separation between day and night, with the laws of yin and yang in complete chaos. These were the most startling features of this strange land.
“We’re in!” Su Xiao Yu said excitedly while Chen Xue Shu and Yang Kai hurriedly scanned their surroundings, breathing a sigh of relief after discovering there was no immediate danger.
This place occupied a vast area; every group of people that came in was randomly distributed and the only people initially placed together were those who rode on the same duckweed. This was part of the information Yang Kai had recently learned, and judging from his current circumstances, it appeared to be accurate.
Yang Kai quietly opened some distance between himself, Chen Xue Shu, and Su Xiao Yu. Although it was not too obvious, it did not escape Chen Xue Shu’s attention.
However, Chen Xue Shu did not mind, instead keeping a friendly smile on his face as he looked at Yang Kai and said, “Junior Brother Yang, do you want to travel together with us? Our relationship with each other is not bad!”
Yang Kai slowly shook his head and cupped his fists before replying, “I appreciate the gesture, but I would like to try experiencing this place alone.”
Chen Xue Shu nodded slightly, not attempting to retain him further, “Then Junior Brother Yang must remember to be careful!”
“You two as well, be safe!” Having said this, Yang Kai turned and activated his movement skill to leave quickly.
“Does he have to run so fast? It’s not like we’ll try to eat him!” Su Xiao Yu pouted, somewhat dissatisfied with Yang Kai’s wariness of them.
Chen Xue Shu chuckled lightly, patting Su Xiao Yu’s head to console her, “That is exactly what he is afraid of!”
“But we had no malicious intentions towards him!” Su Xiao Yu was still puffing her cheeks, “He’s such a petty kid, he’ll certainly die quickly in here!”
Chen Xue Shu shook his head slowly, “Not necessarily. The way he acts is very calm and cautious; people like him generally live longer! Also, I always felt like he is somewhat unusual.”
“Unusual how?” Su Xiao Yu blinked her big eyes in confusion.
“He is only Separation and Reunion Boundary Third Stage yet he still dares to come here, he must have something to rely on which gives him great confidence in survival.”
“In other words…”
“He probably has some incredible means, or else his master would not be so comfortable letting him come here for life experience. Although, of the people who can enter here, which one does not have some skill? We must remember to be careful and try not to provoke conflicts with others.”
After Yang Kai and the pair from Reflecting Moon Sect separated, he continuously used his movement skill to sprint a dozen li, changing directions several times until he jumped up onto a particularly large tree, hiding himself, as he vigilantly observed the movements in his surroundings.
It was not that he wanted to be small minded and petty, it was just that being cautious in this place was necessary.
Moreover, this was also a test of whether Chen Xue Shu and Su Xiao Yu’s were wolves or sheep.
After concealing himself in the tree for a long time, Yang Kai did not notice any signs of people tracing him, and so he concluded that the couple from Reflecting Moon Sect really did not hold any malicious intent towards him.
Both of them were cultivators at the True Element Boundary. They were certainly both geniuses of the Reflecting Moon Sect, so if they really had wanted to act against him, they would not have bothered waiting this long.
Ling Tai Xu had also told him before, if inside he could really find people worthy of believing in, joining together with them was not a bad idea, so as of now, Chen Xue Shu and Su Xiao Yu could be added to the list of people Yang Kai could trust.
If they were fated to meet again, Yang Kai felt he would not mind working with them.
Hiding on the treetop, Yang Kai first tried to summon his two artifacts, letting out a long sigh shortly after when he found himself unable to call them out. It was as if they were somehow sealed inside his body.
“Old Demon!” Yang Kai shouted in his mind.
“Old Servant is here.” Old Demon quickly replied.
“Can your Soul Breaker Awl be used?”
“Old Servant must unfortunately disappoint Young Master, it cannot be used…”
Yang Kai suddenly cursed this damned place that even prohibited the Soul Breaker Awl, which was not his own artifact. Without the Soul Breaker Awl, Old Demon’s combat strength was basically zero; it looked like this time, the only thing he could rely on was his own strength.
Fortunately, before he had entered, Ling Tai Xu had given him the Universe Bag, which certainly contained many good things.
Before, he had not had time to check, so doing so now was a good idea.
Taking out this small bag from his chest pocket and unlocking its seal, Yang Kai reach inside, finding that there were indeed many things stored within.
He could vaguely feel about ten bottles of pills, most of them healing pills, while a few contained Yang property pills. Finding these made Yang Kai extremely happy. This Grand Master of his really treated him well; with these bottles of pills, he would not have to worry about having enough Yang Liquid to use.
In addition to these pills, Yang Kai also found a dozen sets of clean clothes inside, along with a sheathed long sword.
He could use the sword because it was not an artifact, and rather just a steel forged weapon. However, Yang Kai had never learned any sword type martial skills, so chopping blindly with this weapon would probably not be as effective as simply fighting unarmed. With the cultivation levels of the people inside here, a plain sword without any accompanying martial skills would not be able to add to Yang Kai combat strength.
After carefully storing these things again, Yang Kai jump from the tree and rolled up his sleeves, excited to start this life experience.
Half an hour later, Yang Kai met a Fourth-Order Monster Beast and after killing it in a brief battle, he quietly stood in place, waiting.
Sure enough, just as Ling Tai Xu told him, when the Monster Beast died, Yang Kai clearly felt its energy and essence begin to gather in the air in front of him.
At a rate visible to the naked eye, the Monster Beast’s corpse shriveled up as more and more red glowing energy poured out of its body.
The red light glistened for a while, and soon after it condensed into a pea sized Blood Bead.
Yang Kai eyes flashed, the moment this Blood Bead finished condensing he reached out his hand and grabbed hold of it, carefully examining it. He found that this Blood Bead contained a very strange energy. It was not much energy; after all, he had obtained it from just a fourth-order Monster Beast. However, it was also nothing to complain about.
In this strange isolated world, the laws of Heaven and Earth were truly incomprehensible, causing a once living creature to actually form such a thing automatically once it died.
Once he collected the Blood Bead, Yang Kai looked back toward the Monstrous Beast, only to see its corpse had actually turned into a pile of dust, all of its essence exhausted, only leaving behind some dregs.
Unsure how much this small Blood Bead could enhance his strength, Yang Kai was very much looking forward to refining it, but doing so right here and now was clearly not appropriate.
Happy with his gains, Yang Kai morale improved and his pace became more and more light.
This isolated world was really a good place for Separation and Reunion and True Element Boundary cultivators to obtain experience, Yang Kai had only been here for a day, but he had already beheaded five or six Monster Beasts, all of which were either Third or Fourth-order. This had not cost him much Yuan Qi, but his harvest had been quite generous. The only complaint he had was that the Third-order Monster Beasts’ Blood Bead were significantly smaller than the ones Fourth-order beasts produced. Obviously, they were lacking in energy.
Along the way, he had also encountered a Fifth-order Monster Beast. Yang Kai had debated a long time before eventually deciding to hold back; a Fifth-order Monster Beast had strength equivalent to a True Element Boundary cultivator. Only if he used all of his strength would he have a chance to kill it, but even if he could he would have to prepare himself for some injuries.
Because of this, unless it was a last resort, Yang Kai did not want to engage a Fifth-order Monster Beast right now.
For three days, Yang Kai had been constantly seeking out and slaughtering Monster Beasts. Tired from his repeated battles, he wanted to find a relatively safe location to rest and restore his physical strength before continuing to kill.
These past few days, he actually had not met any other people.
No wonder so many Separation and Reunion cultivators dared to enter here, if these three days were a sign of how things were here normally, then aside from having to avoid some of the stronger Monster Beasts, even Qi Transformation Stage cultivators could explore this place without much trouble.
Three days later, Yang Kai was hiding amongst the jungle plants like a panther, secretly observing the prey before him.
Not far away from him were two Fourth-Order Phantom Lightning Wolf Monster Beasts.
Fourth Order Monster Beasts were equivalent to Separation and Reunion cultivators, the same as Yang Kai’s current strength. Two of them acting together might cause trouble for him.
But after considering carefully for awhile, Yang Kai still decided to attack.
Of the Monster Beasts he could handle, the highest were Fourth-Order, so having met two but instantly giving up would be a bit unreasonable.
Making up his mind, Yang Kai leapt out from his hiding place, quickly dashing toward the two nearby wolves. Originally, Yang Kai, who had focused entirely on these two Monster Beasts, had crossed half the distance between them when he suddenly caught a glimpse of a fluttering in the trees not far away in the corner of his eye.
Yang Kai’s heart sank as he quickly looked more carefully, and sure enough, roughly three hundred meters out, a person wearing a dark red robe hastily concealed his figure.
Seeing this, Yang Kai instantly understood what had happened.
The other side had clearly been observing these two wolves from the jungle just like him, but neither of them had discovered any trace of the other until now, and it was purely coincidentally that both of them had actually chosen the same moment to attack.
Maybe because his speed was faster, when Yang Kai had rushed out, the other side had only just appeared.
Because Yang Kai was a step ahead, the other side had discovered him first and quickly retreated, concealing himself once again.
But this man’s clothes were too conspicuous, accidentally exposing him.
Everything happened so fast that it was now too late to retreat; the two Phantom Lightning Wolves had already become aware of Yang Kai and were baring their fangs at him, rushing over to attack.
Yang Kai cursed inside as he considered how to deal with this ‘mantis stalks cicada while the oriole lurks behind’ (In pursuit of a small gain, he neglected his own safety and landed in a precarious) situation, while at the same time desperately trying to recalling the identity this person.
After a brief moment, Yang Kai steeled his heart as he increased his speed, pretending he was completely oblivious to the threat behind him as he faced the two wolves head on.
These two Fourth-Order Monster Beasts were as swift as the wind. Their bodies emitting sparks of lightning, they dashing towards him and split to his left and right, instantly appearing in front of Yang Kai.
The two Monster Beasts were apparently very experienced hunters, as they executed their staggered attacks from both his left and right perfectly.
Yang Kai hurriedly dodged, managing to avoid one of the wolves’ attacks, but he was unable to stop the other from sinking its teeth into his shoulder.
An electric current spread throughout his body, causing Yang Kai to spasm in pain. Quickly circulating his Yuan Qi to resolve this, his muscles tightened as he punched the wolf’s still-biting jaw, taking advantage of the fact that it had yet to rip off his flesh, and managed to send it flying out.
*Awoo!!* A howl of pain rang out as the Phantom Lightning Wolf rolled on the ground several times.
Yang Kai had not used his full strength in this strike, and so did not actually hurt it. After it had once again stabilized itself, the two wolves exchanged a look and, howling even louder than before, they once again attacked.
Yang Kai dashed forward, arriving right between the two Phantom Lightning Wolves’ bellies, and kicked one to the side as he sent a palm strike to the other’s head, forcing it back while blocking its bite.
While they had yet to recover, Yang Kai attacked again, engaging in a desperate close combat struggle with these two Phantom Lightning Wolves.
In fact, if Yang Kai used his full strength, he would not be having such a difficult time handling these wolves, but since he knew someone was quietly observing him from behind, he intentionally put on this show, preparing for what would inevitably come next.
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