Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Creekside Island.
This was a small island in the western part of Endsea, a remote and rarely visited island covered in primordial jungle.
Today, this normally deserted island suddenly became very lively.
A large group of people abruptly appeared over the island, led by Qing Feng.
It was now seven days since they had begun. Xu Miaoran had come back to Horizon Ocean Pavilion on the very first day, with the Blood River Domain materials that had abruptly appeared on the market proving that she had gone to the Blood River Domain and completed a major transaction.
The Hidden Dragon Hall's Wind Squad had still been in the middle of carefully tracing Xu Miaoran's steps.
They didn't care about where Xu Miaoran was, only the path she had taken.
Creekside Island was already the sixth teleportation point that the Wind Squad had been to. For Xu Miaoran, this was just teleporting six times, but for the Wind Squad, it was a process of discovery, tracking, solving, searching… In these seven days, while the Wind Squad had been rushing between teleportation points, they also cursed Xu Miaoran for going so far, laying down so many teleportation formations in order to cover her tracks.
It had to be understood that this was all money!
Teleportation formations had never been cheap, and even the lowest could easily cost a hundred thousand spirit coins.
Xu Miaoran had to have spent millions for these formations.
But no matter how much money she had, she couldn't lay them down forever. With each formation, they felt like they were getting closer and closer to victory.
So what if she had spent two years in seclusion?
So long as Xu Miaoran wanted to continue the inter-domain trade, she would never be able to escape the gaze of her watchers.
This island before them was remote and little-traveled, which made it much safer than the locations of the other teleportation formations. Everyone understood that they were probably close to the secret that Xu Miaoran was trying so hard to keep hidden.
As too much time had passed, the Longsnout Hound could no longer pick up Xu Miaoran's scent, but Qing Feng was ready for this.
"Hui Xing!"
A cultivator came forward, and as he looked down at the island, his eyes glowed—he was a cultivator skilled in Insight. But while Tang Jie used the Dao of Insight, this cultivator was just using an ordinary spell art. It was of a much lower level, but it was fine for tracking purposes.
A few moments later, he pointed in a direction and said, "There's activity over there."
Everyone was delighted and flew in the direction Hui Xing had indicated.
A few moments later, a thick fog billowed out, so thick that they couldn't even see their own hands.
The cultivator proficient in formations looked around and said in a definite tone, "It's a formation. There's another world hidden behind the fog."
Qing Feng's eyes lit up. "This is it."
An ordinary formation naturally wouldn't have been so hidden. Being hidden by an illusion formation meant that some important teleportation formation was being protected here. Even if it wasn't the teleportation formation leading to the Blood River Domain, it might only be one stop away.
"Xuan Yong, can you get through this formation without being discovered?" Qing Feng asked.
That cultivator called Xuan Yong proudly replied, "Didn't you invite me here for exactly this? It's no big deal at all."
Qing Feng nodded in satisfaction.
While Xuan Yong was of average strength, he was quite excellent when it came to formations. Otherwise, he would have never been able to deduce the destinations of the teleportation formations.
This person led the way into the fog.
Xuan Yong calculated as he guided the group, and he showed that he really did have some ability. It wasn't long before the fog dissipated, and they found themselves before a mountain valley.
As everyone grew excited, Qing Feng suddenly heard an almost inaudible rustling sound.
It was very soft, but the moment Qing Feng heard it, he paled and shouted, "Watch out!"
Countless cold points of light shot at the group.
Xuan Yong, who was at the very front, was instantly struck and dropped to the ground with a howl. Frost instantly engulfed his body, freezing him solid.
"Frost Needles! Don't let them touch you!" Qing Feng shouted.
Frost Needles were special art relics only employed by the Ice Fairy, one of the Eight Ocean Rakshasas. Each one was made from thousand-year Coldstone, and they were rarely given to outsiders, so it was surprising for Xu Miaoran to have them. But she did have a lot of money, and with enough money, was there anything that couldn't be bought?
The Wind Squad's cultivators immediately put up barriers to guard them against this ambush, and some of the faster ones thrust out their palms and swung their weapons.
"Leave some alive!" Qing Feng shouted.
For them to be attacked the moment they left the illusion formation, this had to be one of Xu Miaoran's heavily guarded bases, which meant that the teleportation formation had to be important.
Since they had been discovered, Qing Feng decided to drop all pretenses and push through. Concealment was pointless now, and taking control before the other side could react was more important.
The Wind Squad's cultivators charged out.
At the same time, several green-robed cultivators emerged from the mountain valley.
These green-robed cultivators were clearly responsible for guarding the illusion formation's exit, there to attack anyone who came out of the formation without reporting their presence first. But perhaps because this situation had never happened before, they seemed to be panicked. As the Wind Squad charged, one of these cultivators blew on a bamboo flute.
Qing Feng knew that this was trouble, and he loosed a green bolt of energy from his hand. This was the full power of a Heart Demon cultivator, so it dealt a fatal wound as it struck the green-robed cultivator. But that cultivator still blew on the flute as he died, its shrill sound resounding through the valley. A moment later, a responding screech came from the valley.
It was a long and intimidating screech, and Qing Feng realized that an expert was standing guard here.
He turned and shouted, "Everyone, watch out! A strong foe is coming!"
As he shouted, a person rushed out of the valley, charging right at them.
Qing Feng frantically moved up to confront them. The moment this person came out of the valley, he could sense that they were a Heart Demon cultivator, on the same level as him, so if he used all his strength, he could intercept them.
But as he moved up, that person charged past him and made for the rest of the Wind Squad.
Qing Feng was aghast. It had to be understood that of the men he had brought, only one was at Spirit Ring and the rest were at Mortal Shedding. A Heart Demon cultivator among them was like a lion among sheep.
While these people weren't strong, they possessed useful abilities, which was exactly why he had gathered them into his pursuit team. This also meant that he couldn't let this person kill them.
He immediately lunged back, thrusting a palm at that person's back. That person thrust a palm back without turning their head, colliding with Qing Feng's palm.
Qing Feng felt an intensely cold energy enter his body, almost freezing his blood. The spiritual energy in his body was momentarily paralyzed, causing him to almost drop from the sky.
Meanwhile, that assailant used this opportunity to assault the Wind Squad, thrusting out their palms and unleashing a wave of frost.
Several cultivators were struck by the wave and turned into blocks of ice. That person then blinked over and thrust out a finger that shattered those frozen cultivators, killing them before they could counterattack. One of these cultivators was the one called Hui Xing.
The attacker moved to the next group, as swift as a phantom and possessing ruthless methods, even having extra strength to attack Qing Feng.
Although Qing Feng was a Heart Demon cultivator, as captain of the Wind Squad, he had always specialized in pursuit and scouting, not combat. Meanwhile, this person was clearly a combat expert, so Qing Feng was no match. Just where had Xu Miaoran gotten such a strong ally? Let alone Qing Feng, even two Heart Demon cultivators might not be a match for this expert.
As that person killed, they grunted, "You dare to intrude on my Forbidden Frost Ground with this little skill? Seeking death!"
'Forbidden Frost Ground'?
Hearing this, and seeing the intimidating cold energy unleashed by that person, Qing Feng blurted out in shock, "Is that Senior Brother Yue Lengxin?"
"Mm?" That assailant stopped. "That is me. How is it that you dared to assault this place without knowing who you were facing?"
Qing Feng shuddered.
Yue Lengxin was the disciple of the Ice Fairy, her only disciple. He was extremely strong and devoted to his master. Five years ago, the Ice Fairy had engaged in a bloody battle with the Horned Dragon Emperor of the Northern Sea. The Horned Dragon Emperor was a Divine Division Great Fiend who commanded tens of thousands of fiends, and there were even countless cultivators who had pledged fealty to it. Even Horizon Ocean Pavilion couldn't do much about it. Thankfully, while the Ice Fairy had lost, she had only been injured and managed to escape. Upon her return, she entered seclusion to treat her injuries, and Yue Lengxin followed her into seclusion. No one except the upper echelons of Horizon Ocean Pavilion knew where she was.
He hadn't expected to run into Yue Lengxin here.
Could it be…
A thought occurred to Qing Feng, and he stammered out, "Could this place be… this place is…"
Yue Lengxin responded, "It's where my master has secluded herself to treat her injuries. What, so you didn't come here to take down my master?"
He could also tell that something was wrong and finally stopped killing. But by now, the Wind Squad was in tatters, almost half dead and the rest heavily injured. In order to survive, that cultivator who cultivated the Beast Refining Gate's mantra had sacrificed all of his fiend beasts, including the Longsnout Hound, but he had lost a leg and he was crying on the ground.
Qing Feng trembled as he finally realized what had happened.
"We took the bait!"
——————————
"Raaa!"
Cheers rose up from a farm compound on Prosper Island.
Seated on the right as the guest of honor was Bei Canghan, with Cai Junyang and the others seated next to him.
On the other side was Xu Miaoran along with Fan Chenglong's group.
Bei Canghan put his hands together in a salute to Xu Miaoran. "Lady Xu's calculations were impeccable. That Qing Feng took the bait as expected, ending up in a fight with Yue Lengxin where he suffered heavy losses. Following us will be much more difficult for him now."
When it came to dealing with the people of Horizon Ocean Pavilion, the biggest problem she faced was that she couldn't be too ruthless.
Wherever one was, killing one's own was no small crime.
But just because she couldn't kill them didn't mean others couldn't.
In these circumstances, even if the Wind Squad had been completely wiped out, they could only consider themselves unlucky. Nobody had told them to barge into someone's seclusion ground, even breaking through the illusion formation. Being killed was just deserts.
Xu Miaoran smiled. "Big Brother Bei praises me too much. My calculations weren't that great. The key was the people executing it. If Mister Zuo wasn't so excellent at concealment and able to follow them, allowing me to have the initiative, I wouldn't have anything to make my plans with."
Zuo Quanming bowed and smiled. "Just some petty tricks that aren't worth mentioning."
When it came to concealment, tracking, and counter-tracking, Zuo Quanming was just as good as Qing Feng. It was precisely because he was watching from the shadows that they could make sure that everything was going according to plan, or else it would have been impossible to so precisely lure Qing Feng into the trap.
"But won't this offend the Ice Fairy?" Fan Chenglong worriedly said.
Xu Miaoran replied, "She definitely won't be happy to learn that she's been used, so I've prepared some Returning Spring Pills for her. I'm sure that those pills will allow her to heal much faster."
Returning Spring Pills were a wonder medicine that required extremely special and rare materials to make. But these medicinal materials were still possible to find in the Blood River Domain. The price of these materials still wasn't cheap, though, so the profit margins weren't great. Thus, they usually weren't chosen as targets of the inter-domain trade.
But Xu Miaoran had bought some and then hired the Seven Absolutions Sect to make a batch of these pills.
After receiving such a generous gift, the Ice Fairy could have lost even more subordinates and still not minded.
After resolving this question, Xu Miaoran grinned and said, "One bottle of Returning Spring Pills and those teleportation formations to get rid of half the Wind Squad is rather expensive, but a girl's happiness is priceless."
Wei Tianchong folded his arms and said, "You said that, but I expected to get a chance to fight this time. In the end, excepting Old Zuo, everyone else was just here to watch, which doesn't feel that great."
"What's the rush? There will be plenty of opportunities in the future," Xu Miaoran casually replied. "Tang Jie said that when it comes to hidden cards, the more you have, the better. You guys are my biggest trump card, and it's only when you guys haven't done anything that I can still feel confident.
"Moreover, I know Sang Hongmei. That old granny is ruthless, revering only strength and always handling things in a domineering and bossy way, never caring about the rules of the sect. In her eyes, cultivating Immortality is so one can transcend all rules, or else there's no point. When she finds that her current methods won't do, she'll resort to the most direct and most intense method… force.
"So there's no need to worry about not getting the chance to show your strength. But before that time comes, I ask that you be patient. Once Sang Hongmei finally resorts to force, that will be the time for all of you to make your move. I'm sure everyone will have their fill fighting a peak Soul Transformation chief-level individual."
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