Chapter 159 – The Green Robed Old Man
The green-robed old man sat on top of the gourd and looked up at the sky. He slapped the gourd and was just about to fly upward when his expression changed. He raised two fingers and pinched down on a crystal light that suddenly appeared in front of his face. He sneered, but that sneer immediately changed.
The crystal light in between his fingers slowly disappeared. It was an afterimage.
The old man suddenly moved his head as the crystal light brushed by his face. The crystal light flashed a few times before disappearing.
The old man didn’t stop, but his face was gloomy. He wiped the blood from his cheek with his finger, then he placed this finger next to his mouth and licked the blood off before closing his eyes to think.
“This little guy is very bold!” After a long time, he opened his eyes and slapped the gourd. The gourd shrank back to its original size. He opened up the gourd and took a drink. The liquid inside released the sweet scent of wine.
Hou Fen
Although the disaster of the fire beasts was resolved by the rank 4 cultivation country, the spiritual energy there was filled with fire element, making it impossible to cultivate. Adding on the fact that the ground was too hot, the country was mostly covered in lava and volcanos kept on erupting, turning the mortal kingdoms into patches of wasteland.
The former imperial city was covered in lava and all of the buildings were gone. There was no living creatures left in Hou Fen; the entire country was like a silent grave.
w.a.n.g Lin and Li Muwan quickly flew over the country. They both silently pondered as they saw what had become of Hou Fen. Although w.a.n.g Lin had some mixed feelings about all of this, if it wasn’t for the heaven defying bead absorbing the fire spirit, then he would have already been devoured by it.
All of this could only be considered a coincidence; there was no right or wrong. If he was given a choice at that moment, even knowing the result, he would have still done the same thing.
The two of them flew across the sky like a shooting star. Soon, they pa.s.sed by the place where they first met. Li Muwan looked at w.a.n.g Lin but didn’t say a word.
As for w.a.n.g Lin, he was thinking about the person chasing them and had no time to think about anything else. w.a.n.g Lin suddenly stretched his arm out behind him and the crystal flying sword landed in his hand.
w.a.n.g Lin suddenly stopped as he stared at the trace of blood on the flying sword. He smeared the blood onto his hand and then, after staring at it for a while, his expression became very unsettled. He could feel dense spiritual energy from this blood. There was this much spiritual energy in this small amount of blood. Just what kind of cultivation level had this person reached?
He took out a jade bottle and placed the blood inside. Right now, he felt like there was a mountain weighing down his heart. He looked at the giant “Punish” above his head and sneered, then he flew even faster while holding Li Muwan.
After quickly crossing the border of Hou Fen, they could see the mountain where the Hou Fen Union had originally built their base. The four flags of Hou Fen were hung high on the top of the mountain, signifying that this area belonged to the Hou Fen Union.
After they arrived here, w.a.n.g Lin stopped. He pondered for a bit and then said, “I’ll be sending you off.”
Li Muwan bit her lower lip as she looked behind them and said, “How about you follow me back to Lou He Sect to hide for a bit?”
w.a.n.g Lin calmly said, “No need.” With that, he hesitated for a bit while looking at Li Muwan. He slapped his forehead and Li Muwan’s soul essence blood flew out.
w.a.n.g Lin didn’t immediately return it but left a trace of his Ji Realm inside it before returning it.
w.a.n.g Lin slowly said, “Thank you for these past four years. I have left a sliver of my divine sense in your soul essence blood. Anyone below the Nascent Soul stage will no longer be able to harm you.”
Li Muwan revealed a complicated look and asked, “Will we have a chance to meet in the future?”
w.a.n.g Lin pondered for a bit before letting out a sigh. He didn’t answer the question but took something out from his bag of holding and handed it to Li Muwan. It was the hundred beast pill furnace. He had gotten it back after killing Kun Sang.
Li Muwan took the hundred beast pill furnace. After looking at it for a while, she raised her head and said, “These are pills I have made in the past few years. The jade has an explanation of all of them.” With that, she took out more than 10 small bottles and pa.s.sed them to w.a.n.g Lin, along with a piece of jade.
After w.a.n.g Lin received them, he put them into his bag of holding. He then looked at Li Muwan and clasped his hands. “Four years ago, I promised to bring you back here safely. Now that I have, we no longer owe each other anything. Goodbye!”
w.a.n.g Lin was about to leave when Li Muwan suddenly shouted, “Senior brother, this is my gift to you!” With that, she took out a white jade and threw it at w.a.n.g Lin. Then, without looking back, she flew toward the Hou Fen Union.
w.a.n.g Lin caught the jade and scanned it. The message Li Muwan left inside echoed in his ears.
“Senior brother, Wan Er doesn’t know what your name is because you’ve never told me in these past four years. I believe you don’t know mine either… Wan Er thanks you for the countless times you have saved me in these past four years. The time I spent in the Sea of Devils is something I’ll never forget… Since our separation is inevitable, and Wan Er knows that senior brother goes into closed door cultivation a lot, Wan Er is gifting you this jade. This jade is the epitome of Wan Er’s formation skills. It contains the Fighting Evil Sect’s battle dragon formation with improvements.”
“This formation is a fusion of attack and defense, but compared to attack, defense is the true purpose of his formation. If it can protect senior brother for a while when you encounter danger, then Wan Er is satisfied…”
Holding the jade, listening to Li Muwan’s words, and watching her figure disappear into the distance, w.a.n.g Lin began to ponder. He put away the jade, then his body suddenly landed on the ground. After taking one step, he disappeared. After moving far away, he touched his forehead and his body disappeared in a flash of light.
He entered the heaven defying bead, and at this moment, his presence disappeared. w.a.n.g Lin had already decided that he would enter the heaven defying bead after bringing Li Muwan back. The kill order was going to last 100 days. For him, it was just a few extra days of cultivation inside the heaven defying bead.
This was also why, even though he knew of the danger of the kill order, he still killed Qian Kun.
The old man chasing w.a.n.g Lin quickly arrived in Hou Fen. He arrived at the spot where w.a.n.g Lin disappeared shortly after he entered the heaven defying bead. The old man’s face was filled with doubt as his body descended further into the ground. After searching for a while, he came out of the ground with an even stronger look of doubt than before. “Gone… even the connection between the soul blood essence is gone. It seems that that little guy has quite a few secrets.”
Just at this moment, he suddenly raised his head and looked without any expression at the three rays of light flying at him. Soon, the three rays of light arrived, revealing one woman and two men.
The woman was wearing a formal dress. She looked very high statured. To her left was a very handsome man in black robes. He had an overall very elegant presence.
To the woman’s right was a tall, red-faced old man. The old man’s face was different from normal people’s. His eyes were like two large bells and his pupils were like two burning flames.
The old man looked at the three and calmly asked, “Why are you three here?”
That woman was Feng Luan, and as for the elegant, scholarly-looking man, it was without a doubt her cultivation partner, Yang Sen. As for the old man, he was one of the Nascent Soul ancestors from the War G.o.d Shrine. His cultivation level was the same as Yang Sen’s.
Yang Sen looked at the old man with dread because he couldn’t see through the old man’s cultivation. He clasped his hands and asked, “Is fellow cultivator from Xuan Wu?”
The old man rolled his eyes and said, “Who is your follow cultivator? Scram, or else I’m going to take your Nascent Soul and use it to refine treasures.”
Yang Sen’s expression changed. He sneered and was about to speak when the red-faced man stopped him. His bell-like eyes stared at the seven golden plum flowers on the old man’s clothes and asked, “Is your excellency from the Sea of Devils?”
Yang Sen and Feng Luan looked at each other before looking at the golden plum flower on the old man’s s.h.i.+rt.
The old man frowned and became impatient. He waved his hand and the three of them were pushed back. A powerful wind pushed them far away. Even the Nascent Souls in their bodies felt like they were going to be blown out.
After they were finally able to stop themselves, the three’s expressions became gloomy and Yang Sen asked, “What cultivation level?”
The red-faced old man bitterly replied, “At least late stage Nascent Soul…”
Feng Luan frowned and whispered, “Zou Bin, what was that golden plum flower?”
“I believe the two of you have heard about this before. 300 years ago, before I entered the War G.o.d Shrine, I traveled through the Sea of Devils. My early stage Nascent Soul cultivation was enough to keep myself safe as long as I didn’t enter any dangerous areas.”
“The Sea of Devils has a total of 999 cities, and a bit more than 300 of them are in the inner sea. Among those 300 or so cities, seven of them are called the Land of Seven Plums.”
“The seven cities connected form the petal of a plum flower. If you look from a distance, it does resemble it. There are a total of seven city lords who’s cultivation levels are unfathomable. Rumor has it that they have already reached the Soul Formation stage, but those rumors are not confirmed.”
Fang Luan’s frown tightened as he asked, “That person just now…”
The old man’s expression became serious as he said, “If I’m not wrong, then that person just now was one of the city lords of one of the seven cities! However, the demonic cultivators of the Sea of Devils, especially ones from inner sea, don’t leave the Sea of Devils so easily. I don’t believe he will stay here for long.”
The three of them looked at each other. Each of them could feel the weight on each other’s hearts. They went around the old man as they returned to the Hou Fen Union’s mountain.
The three of them sensed the aura of a foreign Nascent Soul cultivator earlier, so they came to check; however, they didn’t expect the result to be someone so difficult to deal with.
The old man wandered around the area for a bit before letting out a snort and spreading out his divine sense. This time he wasn’t going to miss a thing. He carefully scanned the area from the ground to the sky.
The old man’s divine sense slowly swept the area. He gradually began to spread out further and further, until it even affected the Hou Fen Union. However, the old man didn’t care; he swept the area several times but was still unable to find anything.