Chapter 178 - 173: Entering the Secret Realm (2)
The terrain continued to rise, and the dense forest gradually thinned out.
An open scree slope appeared ahead. At its crest, several huge rocks jutted out, forming a natural barrier.
On the far side of the scree slope, a Loose Cultivator was walking east along a small path at its base.
His Cultivation was at the Qi Refining Sixth Level. He carried a bulging cloth bag on his back and walked with a wary gait, glancing back every few steps.
They spotted each other at almost the same time.
The Loose Cultivator stopped, turning his body slightly. His eyes were filled with vigilance.
Li Yuan didn’t stop or change direction, maintaining his original pace as he continued north.
The Loose Cultivator stared at Li Yuan for a couple of seconds. Seeing that he had no intention of approaching, the man changed direction and hurried eastward.
After the scree slope, the terrain changed to rolling hills. Long, narrow valleys lay between them, with streams flowing at the bottom and overgrown with shrubs and weeds.
Li Yuan had been walking north along a valley for about half an hour when his Stealthy Perception suddenly triggered.
It wasn’t malice, but a strange Spiritual Wave.
It was very faint, coming from the hill to his right.
Li Yuan stopped and turned to look in that direction.
The hillside was covered in a thicket of bushes, showing no sign of anything unusual. But the Spiritual Wave was definitely there, rhythmic, as if some kind of Array was in operation.
Li Yuan crouched down and slowly advanced along the edge of the thicket.
When he was about a hundred yards from the source of the Spiritual Wave, the scene before him suddenly changed.
A section of the thicket vanished, replaced by a clearing about twenty feet across. In the center of the clearing stood a low stone platform carved with intricate patterns. Embedded within these patterns were several dark-red stones, glowing faintly.
’An Array.’
’An Array with a concealment function. It’s completely invisible from a hundred yards out and only appears when you get close.’
The stench of blood drifted out from within the Array.
It wasn’t strong, but it was fresh.
Before Li Yuan could get a closer look, the bushes behind the stone platform rustled.
Three men emerged from behind the Array.
The one in the lead was a tall, thin man in a grayish-brown short robe. An old scar ran across his face, from the corner of his left eyebrow to the corner of his mouth.
Behind him were two others, one fat and one short, dressed in the varied styles of Loose Cultivators. Each had a weapon hanging at his waist.
All three of them had Cultivations around the Qi Refining Sixth Level.
The moment the tall, thin man saw Li Yuan, his expression changed.
It wasn’t vigilance, but the look of a predator spotting its prey.
"Don’t let him get away."
His voice wasn’t loud, but the two men behind him moved simultaneously.
The fat man drew a short axe from his waist and shot forward with a push of his feet, moving surprisingly fast.
The short man didn’t pursue. Instead, he raised his hand and unleashed a blast of Spiritual Power. A grayish-white arc of light cut through the air, heading straight for Li Yuan.
Li Yuan pivoted on his heel, sidestepping the arc of Spiritual Power.
The three men split up. The fat one circled around from the left, the short one provided ranged support from behind, and the tall, thin one pressed forward from the front. They coordinated smoothly; clearly, this wasn’t their first time doing this.
Li Yuan no longer hesitated.
’Fireball Technique.’
The first one shot toward the tall, thin man rushing at him.
The Fireball’s speed and power far exceeded what a Qi Refining Sixth Level Cultivator would expect.
The tall, thin man’s expression changed. He dodged sideways as the Fireball grazed past his right shoulder, the searing wave of heat charring his sleeve.
A second Fireball followed immediately, targeting the fat man circling in from the left.
The fat man raised his axe to block, but the Fireball slammed into the axe head, exploding and sending both him and the weapon staggering back four or five steps.
The webbing of his thumb tore, and the short axe flew from his grasp.
’Fire Arrow Skill.’
With his left hand, he simultaneously launched a fire arrow through the gap between the fat man and the tall, thin one, aiming straight for the short man in the back.
The short man was in the middle of charging a second Spiritual Power attack. The fire arrow’s speed caught him off guard. He managed to twist away to protect his vitals, but the arrow grazed his left arm, exploding in a shower of sparks against his sleeve.
The three men’s assault was broken.
Li Yuan gave them no time to regroup. His ability to chain-cast fire spells, combined with his exquisite control over Spiritual Power, had massively boosted his casting speed.
He activated Divine Movement Step, dashing forward two paces to close the distance with the tall, thin man to under thirty yards.
At this range, his Precision stat was practically a lock-on.
’Fireball Technique.’
The third Fireball shot from his hand, flying straight for the tall, thin man’s chest.
The tall, thin man’s pupils contracted. He leaned sharply to his left, but the Fireball’s trajectory, corrected by his Precision stat, shifted slightly and slammed squarely into his right chest.
BOOM.
The tall, thin man’s body flew backward. The robe over his right chest exploded open, revealing charred flesh. Spiritual Power scattered as his meridians ruptured.
He rolled once on the ground, then lay still, his life extinguished.
Seeing the tall, thin man fall, the fat man’s eyes flashed with terror, and he turned to flee.
Li Yuan didn’t give chase.
’Fireball Technique.’
A Fireball caught up to the fat man and struck him in the back, knocking him to the ground. His life faded just as quickly.
The short man was even faster, already having darted seventy yards away.
Li Yuan raised his hand and cast Fire Arrow Skill, launching two in quick succession.
The first arrow pinned the short man’s right leg, causing him to stumble and fall into the bushes. The second pierced his chest as he struggled to get up.
From the first move to all three being down, less than twenty seconds had passed.
Li Yuan stood his ground, scanning the surroundings. After confirming there were no other presences, he walked over to search the bodies.
The tall, thin man’s storage bag contained a fair number of items: several bottles of medicinal pills, a dozen or so Spirit Stones, a throwing knife, and a Token.
He flipped the Token over. A simplified pattern was carved on the back.
The crest of the Li family.
The fat and short men’s storage bags also had items, but no Tokens.
Their clothes and equipment were standard for Loose Cultivators; they didn’t seem to belong to any particular family.
’Hired hands, or allied Loose Cultivators.’
Li Yuan collected all three storage bags and began to inspect their contents.
The Spirit Stones totaled over forty. There were also several bottles of pills, mostly common Replenishing Essence Pills and Qi Replenishing Pills.
Then, deep inside the tall, thin man’s storage bag, he found a cloth pouch.
He opened the pouch. Inside were several medicinal herbs, carefully wrapped in Oil Paper.
Three stalks of Red Glow Grass, a small bag of Profound Spirit Sand, and a sealed porcelain vial of Soul Condensing Dew.
’Supplementary materials for a Foundation Establishment Pill.’ He recalled what he’d heard back in the Yunyang marketplace. Red Glow Grass, Profound Spirit Sand, and Soul Condensing Dew... these were all materials for the Breaking Element Pill.
Li Yuan put the herbs away, stood up, and walked toward the Array.
The Array was still running; the dark-red stones on the platform were still glowing.
As he drew closer, the stench of blood grew stronger. The surface of the stone platform was stained with dark marks, as if dried blood had seeped into the stone’s grain.
The Array’s structure wasn’t complex—only Tier One—but the arrangement of the Array Patterns was unusual.
Li Yuan was only a novice in the Array Dao and couldn’t decipher the meaning of all the Array Patterns. However, he could tell that the Array’s core function wasn’t defense or offense, but some form of "gathering."
What it was gathering wasn’t clear from the Array Patterns, but the bloodstains on the platform offered a grim suggestion.
Without hesitation, Li Yuan raised his hand and blasted the stone platform with a Fireball.
A corner of the platform was blasted off by the Fireball, breaking the Array Patterns and interrupting the Spiritual Power circuit. The glow from the dark-red stones faded rapidly, and the Array’s Spiritual Wave dissipated completely within seconds.
With that, the concealment function failed, and the surrounding bushes returned to normal.
As the stone platform shattered, several dark-red stones dislodged from the Array Patterns and scattered on the ground.
Most of them had shattered into dust, but one remained intact. It was the size of a fist and had a smooth surface. Within its dark-red luster, one could faintly see wisps of dark patterns flowing inside, like coagulated blood.
Li Yuan picked up the intact stone.
Translucent text appeared before his eyes.
[Detected Equippable Item: Bloodthirsty Stone (Intact)]
[Equip Entry Preview: Blood-Devouring Realm Tempering (Green) — Killing a Cultivator increases your breakthrough probability. The stronger the Cultivator killed, the greater the effect. Maximum breakthrough probability increase: 50%.]
[Permanence Condition Preview: Kill five or more Cultivators of the same tier, or kill one Cultivator at Foundation Establishment or higher.]
[Equip?]
’A green-tier entry.’
Li Yuan stared at the entry’s effect for a few seconds.
’Killing Cultivators increases breakthrough probability. The stronger they are, the greater the effect. Up to a fifty percent increase.’
’The effect is extremely powerful, but something’s off. The entry’s effect is almost certainly tied to the item itself, which means this Array probably wasn’t used for anything good.’
Li Yuan put the Bloodthirsty Stone into his storage bag without equipping it.
Li Yuan glanced around one last time before leaving the area.