Chapter 284 - 269: Harboring... an Imperial Soldier
The sudden, faint message that rang directly in his ears and Divine Soul brought Qi Yun to a screeching halt.
His pupils contracted abruptly, and the aura around him instantly grew as taut as a fully drawn bow.
Before he could even process the message’s content, he instinctively unleashed the Daluo Realm he had just been retracting.
It enveloped him, protecting him securely at its center.
On such a chaotic battlefield, with the Divine Thoughts of seven Great Masters sweeping back and forth, and while he himself was on high alert...
...to have a message sent so silently and precisely to his ears.
And for it to be completely untraceable...
Such a method was anything but ordinary!
Besides, the voice was unfamiliar, not belonging to any of the Great Masters he knew.
’Who is it?!’
The alarm in Qi Yun’s heart instantly shot to its peak. Magical Power surged through his meridians, the Daluo Ten Thousand Laws Dao Foundation slowly began to turn in the depths of his Purple Mansion, and the Mastering All Skills Divine Technique was primed and ready.
He condensed his Divine Sense into fine threads, revealing nothing.
"Who are you?" he asked in a low voice. His words passed through the Realm Heaven Barrier, calm and steady, betraying no emotion.
A brief silence followed, broken only by the faint sounds of pursuit and the clashes of battle over treasures in the distance.
The voice sounded again, still faint, echoing directly in Qi Yun’s Heart and Spirit:
"We just met. Are you that forgetful?"
The voice drifted, sounding near one moment and far the next, its exhaustion and urgency even more pronounced.
’We just met?’
Qi Yun’s brow furrowed. His mind flashed through every figure he had encountered since the Imperial Soldier had appeared—the seven Great Masters?
’No, their voices and auras are completely different.’
’Li Xuanqing? Or someone else hiding in the shadows...’
’Wait!’
An absurd yet perfectly fitting idea struck him like a bolt of lightning!
The little Golden Tree that was running for its life!
"You’re... that Imperial Soldier?!"
Even with Qi Yun’s temperament, he couldn’t hide the trace of astonishment in his voice.
"Young friend, you have an extraordinary bearing and a sharp mind. You truly understand with just a hint." The strange voice confirmed Qi Yun’s guess, its tone carrying a hint of relief.
But what was more apparent was its unconcealable exhaustion and urgency.
"I wonder, young friend, if you could do me a favor?
If you do, I will grant you a heaven-sent opportunity."
’It really is it!’
’The God of Wealth!’
Qi Yun’s heart pounded like a tidal wave.
’An Imperial Soldier is actively seeking help from a Foundation Establishment Cultivator?’
"What favor?" he asked impassively, his tone still calm, but his internal vigilance had been raised to its absolute limit.
"Help me escape," the God of Wealth’s voice grew more frantic, as if every word was a race against time.
’Escape?’
’Escape from the pursuit of seven Great Masters who are only a step away from becoming True Monarchs?’
"Sorry, I can’t do it."
Qi Yun refused decisively, with almost no hesitation.
’It’s something True Monarchs covet and Great Masters are fighting over.’
’I’d like to live a few more years.’
Not to mention whether he even had the ability to help an Imperial Soldier escape from under the noses of seven Great Masters.
The karmic entanglement alone would be enough to get him killed without a proper burial!
"Don’t worry, young friend."
The God of Wealth seemed to have anticipated his reaction, its speech quickening.
"I have a Secret Skill that can temporarily obscure heavenly secrets and confuse their senses, making it impossible for them to easily detect my location or my connection to you.
Just open your Realm Heaven Barrier. This will help confound the Great Masters’ tracking, and our work will be more than halfway done.
They will be absolutely unable to find me for some time!"
Its voice carried an almost pleading tone:
"Young friend, your Realm Heaven has a unique Dao Rhyme and an all-encompassing nature. More importantly, it possesses a trace of transcendent Status. It is the perfect hiding place.
I only need to hide from the immediate danger. I will absolutely not involve you for long!"
Hearing this, Qi Yun did not answer immediately.
His fingertips gently stroked the smooth, cool surface of the Treasure Gold Coin in his hand.
Meanwhile, his mind raced, weighing the God of Wealth’s words.
’Are the Imperial Soldier’s words true or false?’
’Does it really have a Secret Skill that can deceive the tracking of Great Masters?’
The terrifying might of the seven Great Masters was still fresh in his mind, and the state of feigned Foundation Establishment Middle Stage he was maintaining was slowly fading.
One wrong step, and it would be eternal damnation.
’Refusing seems like the safest option.’
’But would it be too much of a pity to miss this chance to form a karmic bond with an Imperial Soldier and receive its promised "heaven-sent opportunity"?’
’Besides, this God of Wealth is so intelligent. If I refuse it today, will I make an enemy of an unfathomably ancient existence?’
’Agree?’
’That would be like diving headfirst into the most dangerous whirlpool imaginable!’
’If I’m exposed, death is certain!’
Pros and cons intertwined; the risks were impossible to gauge.
Qi Yun’s brow furrowed deeper and deeper. Within his Dao Heart, the scales tipped back and forth, laden with arguments on both sides.
And just at this delicate moment, when his Heart and Spirit was most conflicted and he found it impossible to decide...
BZZZ!
Deep within his Purple Mansion, his Daluo Heaven trembled ever so slightly, without any warning.
Qi Yun’s attention was instantly drawn to it.
He saw that deep within the Daluo Heaven, next to the already perfected ball of light that was the Peak Essence, the void rippled faintly as a new, strange point of light slowly condensed and materialized.
Although it was extremely faint, just a nascent form...
...the Dao Rhyme it emanated was clearly of the same lineage as the Origin Mechanism and the Peak Essence, yet it was also completely unique!
This was clearly the aura of the third element of the Four Seasons!
Its name naturally became clear in Qi Yun’s mind along with its Daoist Intent—
The Mysterious Hidden Treasure!
Suspended and undecided, hidden and unrevealed.
To glimpse a thread of profound heavenly secrets from the cliff edge between risk and opportunity.
"The Mysterious Hidden Treasure..."
Qi Yun murmured in his heart, an unprecedented gleam erupting in his eyes!
The Way of the Four Seasons was fundamental to his own Dao path. Its importance far surpassed that of any external opportunity.
Qi Yun slowly raised his head. His gaze pierced through the Daluo Realm, looking toward the frantically pursued God of Wealth, and also toward the unknown, perilous future.
The fingers he was using to rub the Military Preparation Gold came to a stop.
The hesitation in his eyes vanished, replaced by a cold decisiveness.
"Your Secret Skill... how long can it keep you hidden?" Qi Yun’s voice sounded again, frighteningly calm.
He hadn’t agreed directly, but it was a clear signal.
"Until we’ve both escaped safely!" The God of Wealth’s voice suddenly surged, its exhaustion tinged with a powerful will to survive and a hint of relief.
"Young friend, you only need to open your Realm Heaven for three breaths!
No, two breaths will be enough!
I will use my Secret Skill to escape into your Realm Heaven!"
"Two breaths."
Qi Yun was succinct, already starting the countdown in his mind.
With a slight shift in his Heart Thought, the Daluo Realm barrier surrounding him did not retract completely.
Instead, at a point roughly facing the God of Wealth’s direction, he silently opened a minuscule slit, barely wide enough for a single hair to pass through!
The slit appeared without any warning, leaking no Magical Power or spatial fluctuations.
At almost the exact same instant the slit appeared!
Far away in the Valley of No Life, the main body of the God of Wealth—which was locked down and cornered by seven terrifying auras—suddenly erupted with an unprecedentedly brilliant golden light.
"Kaiyuan is indeterminate, Tongbao is ever-changing!
Golden Cicada Shell is cast, confounding the heavens!"
An ancient mantra, imperceptible yet containing the true meaning of a supreme Law, vibrated from within the Golden Tree!
In the next instant, the pupils of the seven pursuing Great Masters contracted sharply.
They saw the gilded Dao Patterns flowing across the frantically fleeing Golden Tree suddenly dim, and the Dao Rhyme and spiritual nature it radiated as an Imperial Soldier rapidly weakened and blurred!
At the same time, from among the sparse leaves and branches at the top of the small tree...
...a speck of Dark Gold Spiritual Light, pure to the extreme and containing its most core spiritual nature, detached itself silently from the main body, like a ripe fruit falling naturally from the branch!
SWOOSH—!
The speck of Dark Gold Spiritual Light moved at a speed surpassing thought, ignoring distance as it passed precisely through the minuscule slit and instantly vanished inside the Daluo Realm.
The entire process was too fast to be described even by a flash of lightning.
From the moment Qi Yun opened the slit, to the God of Wealth using its "Golden Cicada Shell" Secret Skill, to the Dark Gold Spiritual Light escaping into the Daluo Heaven, the whole thing took barely a breath and a half!
The instant the speck of light entered him, Qi Yun unhesitatingly sealed the Daluo Realm’s barrier completely shut.
At the same time, he operated his Dao Foundation at full power, using his Venerable Dao Intent and its all-encompassing nature to wrap the foreign Spiritual Light in layer after layer, concealing and assimilating its aura.
He did his best to erase any minute fluctuations that might have been left behind from the moment it entered.
Only after doing all this did he feel the cold sweat drenching his back.
It had only been a little over a single breath, but it felt like he had just walked a tightrope over a bottomless abyss.
Meanwhile, outside—
Having lost its core speck of Spiritual Light, and with the God of Wealth’s essence having fled, the tree’s speed slowed noticeably, and the golden light it emitted grew dim and unsteady.
"Hm?!"
"Something’s wrong!"
"Its aura... how is it weakening so quickly?!"
"Is this a trick?!"
How could figures like the seven Great Masters not immediately notice the anomaly?
They were chasing a Golden Tang Dynasty Imperial Soldier. Even if cornered, it shouldn’t "wither" so quickly.
This defied common sense!
Almost simultaneously, seven terrifying streams of Divine Sense and Dao Realm Laws, each containing supreme might capable of sealing off a region of Heaven and Earth, converged like a Celestial Net, fiercely blanketing the fleeing Golden Tree.
"BZZZZ—!!!"
The main body of the God of Wealth tried to struggle. The inscription on its trunk—"Kaiyuan Tongbao, eternal prosperity for all ages"—flashed wildly as it attempted to resist.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Seven streams of majestic power, each different in nature but all touching the apex of this world, crashed down from different directions like seven Divine Mountains!
Seven layers of Forbidden Seals, seven layers of suppression, stacked one on top of the other, instantly freezing, sealing, and isolating the space occupied by the Golden Tree!
The golden light was forcibly suppressed back into the trunk, and the struggles of the God of Wealth’s main body grew weaker and weaker.
Finally, like an insect preserved in amber, it came to a complete halt in mid-air, Immovable.
Only the faint golden luster still flowing on its surface testified to its extraordinary material as an Imperial Soldier and its residual Dao Rhyme.
The figures of the seven Great Masters appeared almost simultaneously around this completely sealed space, their gazes burning as they stared at the heavily sealed Golden Tree in the center, its spiritual nature now "dormant."
’We succeeded?’
’Was it really that easy to trap the Imperial Soldier, the God of Wealth?’
A thread of unreal doubt rose in each of their hearts.
The might of an Imperial Soldier, even one without a wielder, should not be so easily subdued.
’Has the passage of long years weakened its power?’
RUMBLE—
In an instant, all seven Great Masters acted in unison, divining the lines of karma.
A great net of karma, like a destructive tidal wave, instantly swept across the entire Valley of No Life and even spread out further beyond!
Every wisp of Spiritual Qi, every speck of dust, every Cultivator’s aura was sifted through again and a again by this all-pervasive net of karma!
At this moment, Qi Yun had retracted all of his external aura.
The speck of the God of Wealth’s Dark Gold Spiritual Light was now safely hidden within the Daluo Heaven deep in his Purple Mansion.
The Daluo Heaven was Qi Yun’s Venerable Dao Foundation, which inherently possessed the ability to encompass all things and obscure heavenly secrets.
Coupled with the Secret Skill the God of Wealth had used to mask heavenly secrets and sever karmic ties, it had achieved a state of perfect dormancy.
The karmic investigation washed over Qi Yun like a tide, then receded without detecting a thing.
Qi Yun’s expression remained normal, but inside, his heart was a tempest of crashing waves.
’If they’d found even the slightest hint of something fishy, I’d have been totally screwed.’
Thankfully, the God of Wealth’s Secret Skill was truly formidable.
No matter how the seven Great Masters scoured and divined every single thing in the Valley of No Life, as if plowing a field, they found nothing.
It... it had actually worked...
...