"The Da Qian Empire stretches thousands of miles. There are 99 regions in the whole empire and 587 counties. The capital of the empire is Jade City!"
"The Qin Family is based in the desert region Northwest of the capital, in Dongyi County. Our ancestors wanted to start our own country and fought battles in the desert. After a hundred wars, we have finally won. From then, the next heir would be the sons of the previous master of the family..."
The flames were flickering.
As night came, Qin Qing sat next to the fire and was speechless.
As she slowly described, a powerful family, many times more powerful than Yang Fan"s family, appeared in Fang Yuan"s mind.
"If what you say is true, then the Qin Family must be the most influential family in Dongyi County! The family master would automatically pa.s.s down his power to the next generation, and they would have 500 soldiers each at their disposal... Because of this, the few most powerful people in the family would be the elders, who would be either Meridian Opening Wu Zongs or Elemental Opening spiritual knights."
"And your main enemy is the First Wife, Lady Xu? She is the eldest daughter in the Xu Family and has a strong influence. Is it true that one of her ancestors is a spiritual array master at the Elemental Opening Stage?"
Fang Yuan asked casually without any respect.
Once a dream master achieves the Illusionary Divine Stage, his power would multiply by many folds, and he would give no regard to normal spiritual knights in the Elemental Opening Realm or Wu Zongs in the Meridian Opening Stage.
Spiritual array masters would still give him a little trouble but that was all.
"Look at Da Qian Empire! Even a small county like Dongyi County would have so many spiritual knights in the Elemental Opening Realm! Of course... any county in Da Qian Empire would be as large as a country in the mainland, like Yuan Country or Wu Country..."
Fang Yuan shook his head and took in a deep breath.
This was still the desert between Three World Mountain and the Ten Extremes, and hardly and life was seen here. However, he could already feel the elemental energy building up in the surroundings.
It was impossible to breed a dragon in a tiny pond!
Although this was only the boundary of Da Qian Empire, it was already filled with elemental energy, which was enough to convince Fang Yuan to stay.
"This is only the desert plains. If this was Da Qian Empire, I"m sure the spiritual energy and elemental energy would be many folds of what I have at Green Peak spiritual land!"
Fang Yuan sighed in his heart.
After thinking to himself, he saw Qin Yun gobbling the snake which they just cooked, which made him laugh to himself.
The moon and the stars were bright in the night sky.
Fang Yuan crossed his legs and appeared to be sleeping.
As he linked his consciousness to his actualised dream world, the Fang Yuan figurine appeared serious. One of his hands was pointed up to the sky while the other was pressing against the ground. His dream elemental force was surging as it pushed outwards on the limits of the actualised dream world.
"The cultivation of Illusionary Divine is to find out one"s true power and embark on the process to slowly advance to the peak..."
Fang Yuan focused as his dream elemental force began to condense.
Although it was hidden, he could detect a hint of red-coloured dark force among his dream elemental force; it was like a leech, impossible to get rid of.
"It seems like I"m really possessed..."
Controlling his dream elemental force, he continuously tried to use up all of it to wash the dark force out, but to no avail. "Fortunately, I was able to walk out safely from the Three World Mountain. This must be an accident... Regardless, it is still not a good thing for the dark force to linger about in my body!"
He could feel that he had brought trouble to himself.
Suddenly, there was a tremor.
In the real world, on the desert plains, the crossed-legged Fang Yuan opened his eyes as they glittered. "Get up!"
The Qin siblings clumsily got to their feet. Their sleepy faces turned into a serious one. "Are these... cavalry units?"
"Don"t worry. The Xu Family and Lady Xu, both of them do not have such influence to make the guards of the Ten Extremes work for them. Those killers who would go after you two would only be found in Dongyi County."
Fang Yuan looked ahead. "This should be their routine patrols to catch fugitives!"
Qin Qing and Qin Yun both shuddered.
This was a message from the Da Qian Imperial Family! Any citizens from Da Qian Empire who escape would become a fugitive and would be killed on sight!
Not just that, but the guards of the Ten Extremes were the best guards of Da Qian Empire. They would go on patrols often and would actively attack those they deem guilty. If they were to come across both of them, they would surely not let them go.
"No! We can"t let them spot us!"
Qin Qing clenched her teeth.
No one would know that they had escaped.
As long as they could go through the guards of the Ten Extremes undetected, no one would know that they were fugitives! They wouldn"t send people to Desert City to check on their background.
The crux was this; they could not let the guards hold any evidence to prove that they were seen in the desert plains!
Therefore, the first reaction of Qin Qing when she saw the incoming cavalries was to run.
"I"m afraid it"s too late!"
Fang Yuan shook his head. "Furthermore, there"s another way for them to not know of your existence here. We can kill all of these guards! Isn"t that a solution too?"
"What did you just say?"
Qin Qing and Qin Yun were stunned. Slowly, they realised that the master which they have placed all their hopes on was a madman.
"Hurry up! Catch them!"
Under the moonlight, a group of people was escaping. All of them had strong spiritual auras and the leader among them was an old man, who was a Wu Zong. He was guarding a few young men.
"The heavens are not fair! It was obvious that Nishui Sect was the one colluding with the governor, wrongly accusing us, the Nine Suns Sect as traitors, causing our sect master to be locked up in jail and tortured to death. We have already tried our best to appeal, but the officials and the governor would surely protect each other, which ultimately forced us out of Da Qian Empire..."
The old Wu Zong exclaimed as tears welled up in his eyes.
"Kill!"
Behind him were heavily-armoured cavalries and all of them appeared ferocious.
The leader had a little mustache at the side of his mouth and had the appearance of a bully. With a cunning laughter, he continued. "We have nothing to do with these internal disputes! I only know of the order that whoever trespa.s.ses the guards of the Ten Extremes would be labeled as fugitives, and we would be credited with killing you people!"
"Right now, all of you have escaped Da Qian on your own accord. Therefore, all of you are fugitives! Face your death!"
"Whoos.h.!.+"
As he spoke, he pulled his metal bowed released an arrow upwards, and the arrow fell down like a raindrop.
A disciple of the Nine Suns Sect was shot in the chest, and blood spurted everywhere as he fell to the ground.
"These are the talents of our Nine Suns Sect!"
The old Wu Zong"s face was flushed as he spat out a mouthful of blood. Quickly, he pushed a young man away. "Bring young master away. I"ll hold them up! Spiral Qigong!"
"Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+"
Two energy auras appeared, which subsequently transformed into spirals. The surging energy held the cavalries back.
"Lu!"
As the dust was stirred, a young man held the reins to the horse. The metal bow on his hands was already broken, and he appeared solemn. "You old fogey, since you want death so much, I, Lin Quannan, shall give it to you!"
As he waved his hands, a figure of elemental force appeared.
This young man was also a Wu Zong. Similar to Fang Yuan"s experience in Yang Fan"s dream world, he was enlisted in the army as the Eagle Lieutenant!
Furthermore, his first move was a killer move and had the vibes of a powerful commander. In no time, he had subdued the old Wu Zong.
"Iron Blood Fighting Energy! Ten Bloodied Styles!"
The young man, Lin Quannan exclaimed. From his four limbs, a dark red elemental force seeped out, bring with it a strong iron smell. The elemental force combined to become his armour and the design on the armour was extremely intricate.
However, what was more interesting was his Ten Bloodied Styles. Every move of his was extremely simple but effective. It gave off the vibe of a commander and the feel that even if he were to die on the battlefield, he would bring the enemy with him. Without reservations, he pressured the old Wu Zong to his limits.
This young man, Lin Quannan, might even be one step away from Meridian Opening Stage and could breakthrough anytime!
"Pu!"
On the horizon of the desert plains, there were silhouettes of people fighting.
The old Wu Zong could not withstand his opponent"s moves. He had endured a palm on his chest, before another claw. His hand flew away as blood spurted out.
"Elder Han..."
The people of Nine Suns Sect were in chaos. The young master was full of tears but was held back by a few loyal disciples as they retreated towards Three World Mountain.
Due to the mysterious nature of the place, even spiritual knights of the Elemental Opening Realm or Wu Zongs would not dare to enter into the depths of the mountain, not to mention chasing all the way to Desert City.
Therefore, it was a victory for those escaping Da Qian Empire to make it to Three World Mountain.
However, for the people of Nine Suns Sect, the distance to the mountain was akin to a step to Heaven.
"Black Tiger Guards, listen to my command. 1st group and 2nd group are to surround them. Don"t let a single one of them escape!"
Lin Quannan returned to his horse and gave a confident look. "3rd group, patrol around the area. 4th group..."
He pointed towards the direction of the campsite which Fang Yuan had set up. "It seems like there was the flicker of fire in that direction. Check it out, and if you see any fugitives, kill on sight! You don"t need to ask me for permission!"
"Yes, Sir!"
The guards split into groups behind him and they were all extremely ordered.
"Ah!"
"What is this?"
"A vine monster? Be careful, this is a spiritual knight"s spiritual spell!"
Suddenly, there was a commotion in the direction which the 4th group had set of towards.
"Hisss! Hiss!"
With the hissing sound, there was a wave of gra.s.s growing. The originally barren piece of land started to have life, and the roots of the vegetation started to grow rapidly like dancing ghosts and quickly, the horses" feet were tangled up.
"Wood-type spiritual spell?"
Lin Quannan slit his wrists and poured warm blood over the roots.
"Sizzle!"
As his blood was poured over the gra.s.s, white steam appeared and the gra.s.s started to shrivel up and rot as though they had met their nemesis.
"A Wu Zong"s blood is Yang in nature. Although I cannot counter spiritual spells using spiritual meridians like those Wu Zongs of Meridian Opening Stage, my blood can counter the most basic spiritual spells!"
Lin Quannan let out a long laughter. "Which cowardly being dares to ambush me?"
In reality, it was not because of the fact that his blood was magical and was able to break the spiritual spell. Rather, it was because he had learnt a secret spell and was purely harnessing it.
Otherwise, a normal Wu Zong"s blood would not be able to threaten Fang Yuan"s spiritual spell.
"He has only countered one of my spiritual spells. How dare he be so full of himself..."
A soft sound was heard from all directions and the people of Nine Suns Sect were filled with happiness, as though they had met their saviour.
"Sha! Sha!"
As the soft sound came to an end, waves of gra.s.ses started to rumble from all directions, and the scale of it this time was many folds larger than before.
"How is this possible? Could this be a spiritual array, casting so many spiritual spells at once?"
Lin Quannan"s face was filled with disbelief as he struggled to comment.