Chapter 489: Defying the Battle
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Qin Haishan and his group have yet to arrive till now, eliminating Yu Shoucheng has made them somewhat wary of us.”
Mo Shiyi played with the Profound Origin Pearl in his hand, which could harness the power of four other Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts and merge it with his own, allowing Mo Shiyi to unleash the power of the mid-Combined Aperture Tempering realm.
Of course, Mo Shiyi’s own strength was formidable, just like Qin Haishan, both of them had already reached the second stage of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm. With the added boost from the Profound Origin Pearl, they had reached that level.
In the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, one realm was a world of difference. Facing a mid-Combined Aperture Tempering realm expert in the initial stage was like asking to be defeated, without any surprise.
Although the Profound Origin Pearl could only unleash one attack, Mo Shiyi couldn’t perfectly control this power, but it was more than enough against an initial stage Combined Aperture Tempering realm opponent.
Yu Shoucheng had broken through the Combined Aperture Tempering realm decades ago, with both experience and skills at his disposal, but when facing Mo Shiyi, he left the battle heavily injured.
If Mo Shiyi had controlled the power more finely at that moment, Yu Shoucheng might have died on the spot.
“Qin Haishan and his group probably want to turn the tide with the power of the battle flag,” Miao Wanhong chuckled softly.
“We tried just now, and to make the battle flag ascend, it requires an immense amount of resources, not something that can be accomplished in a short time,” Hu Yanwu shook his head. At this moment, they wouldn’t give the other side any opportunity.
They had actually considered whether to upgrade the battle flag before, but with Yu Shoucheng eliminated, boosting the flag would slow them down instead. In the end, if they had to rely on the battle flag, it would be a loss for them.
So, once they confirmed that it would take enough time to upgrade the flag, they simply gave up on that idea.
“Let’s go and conclude this battle!” Mo Shiyi’s lips curled into a slight smile.
They had prepared contingency plans in case Qin Haishan and his group pursued them. Because of this scenario, they had stayed together since Yu Shoucheng’s elimination to prevent being picked off one by one.
In Mo Shiyi’s eyes, if Qin Haishan and his group had the courage to come over at that time, the final result would still have been somewhat uncertain, considering that their strength had indeed been affected back then.
But now, Qin Haishan and his four companions were hesitating and wouldn’t dare to come over, naturally missing their last opportunity.
With the recovery of the five of them now, the outcome of this battle had been completely sealed, without any other unexpected events.
Mo Shiyi and his group soared into the sky, heading straight for the opposing boundary.
At the border between the two sides, Chen Fei’s head suddenly lifted. In Chen Fei’s field of vision, that red battle flag was rapidly moving.
Chen Fei used his elemental power to vibrate a jade pendant in his possession. Qin Haishan and his three companions quickly appeared by Chen Fei’s side. Chen Fei waved his right hand, suppressing the aura of Qin Haishan and his three companions, then personally led them to disappear on the spot.
Mo Shiyi’s Profound Origin Pearl possessed extremely strong reconnaissance capabilities. Chen Fei, accompanied by his three companions, could avoid being tracked and buy more time.
Moreover, relying on Chen Fei’s mental perception, they could better evade the detection range of the Profound Origin Pearl.
Chen Fei led Qin Haishan and his three companions to move in the opposite direction, carving an arc that took them deeper into the opponent’s territory, just as they pa.s.sed by Mo Shiyi’s group.
“All right, they’ve entered our territory, let’s continue harvesting resources.”
As they ventured deeper into the enemy’s territory, Chen Fei and his group discovered that the elemental energy contained in the resources here was even richer. It was evident that the deeper they penetrated the opponent’s territory, the more elemental energy the resource points provided.
This seemed to be one of the rules of this flag-s.n.a.t.c.hing battle. When harvesting resources from their own territory, the elemental energy given was minimal, but when collecting from the opponent’s territory, the elemental energy was abundant, and the deeper they went, the more they obtained.
Even Zhao Tianxuan and his two companions couldn’t help but smile, and even Qin Haishan, who was usually reserved, had a hint of satisfaction on his face.
Clearly, Mo Shiyi and his group had never intended to develop the battle flag, and through their resource harvesting just now, Chen Fei’s team had already established a preliminary advantage.
Now, by collecting resources in this area, their advantage would continue to grow. By the time Mo Shiyi and his group realized what was happening, the advantage they had built would be insurmountable.
This is the s...o...b..ll effect; the s...o...b..ll that starts rolling gains a significant advantage, which grows bigger as it continues, becoming unstoppable as time goes on!
Chen Fei continued to sense the distance, preventing Mo Shiyi and his group from suddenly returning, while also not delaying in slicing open the jade marrow in front of him. Qin Haishan and his three companions were now completely focused on harvesting resources.
When they were at the border between the two sides, Qin Haishan and his companions were still not entirely committed to resource collection, as they were always worried about the possible return of Mo Shiyi and his group.
However, with Chen Fei having detected the movement of the opponent’s battle flag ahead of time and leading them perfectly to avoid Mo Shiyi and his group, the trust in Chen Fei from Qin Haishan and his companions had further strengthened.
Despite the unfavorable initial development of this flag-s.n.a.t.c.hing battle, it seemed to have entered the right track due to Chen Fei’s role.
Although Chen Fei had the lowest cultivation level among them, the role he played now was the most significant. This was something they couldn’t have foreseen before.
Qin Haishan was already contemplating in his mind that if they were to win this flag-s.n.a.t.c.hing battle in the end, they should consider expanding the area allocated to the Primordial Sword Sect within the third-level secret realm.
After all, no matter how you looked at it, Chen Fei’s contribution in this battle was enormous. The original allocation seemed a bit too stingy.
As the black battle flag continued to absorb resources, the waves of fluctuation within it grew stronger. Chen Fei even performed the Slaughter Spirit Technique twice to cover up the flag’s aura once again.
On the other side, Mo Shiyi and his group charged into the opponent’s territory with great momentum, expecting to sense the aura of the opponent’s battle flag soon. However, after circling around, they hadn’t even caught a glimpse of the flag’s shadow.
“The opponent must have used a formation to conceal the flag’s aura!” Miao Wanhong frowned.
“Using a formation to hide the aura means that the flag’s location would be difficult to change, and even if they use a formation plate, the flag’s movement speed would be extremely slow,” Hu Yanwu said solemnly.
“They’re probably hiding in some corner, trying to quietly raise the flag. This territory isn’t that large, and even if we search it inch by inch, we’ll find them!” Mo Shiyi snorted.
The drawback of concealing the flag’s aura with a formation was evident. With the speed of Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts, it wouldn’t take too long to traverse this territory.
Mo Shiyi and his group began searching along a specific route. In just fifteen minutes, they had covered most of the territory. However, during this quarter of an hour, Mo Shiyi’s group had found nothing.
Qin Haishan and his three companions seemed to have disappeared.
Mo Shiyi had a vague sense of foreboding, but since they hadn’t completely searched the territory yet, he couldn’t be sure if his intuition was correct. Meanwhile, outside the Haiyue Cave,
Everyone watched as Mo Shiyi and his group searched the opponent’s territory vigorously. At the same time, Chen Fei’s group remained near Mo Shiyi’s territory’s cave, harvesting resources.
On the water curtain, the resource points were densely packed with small red dots, and these dots were being swiftly cleared by Qin Haishan and his three companions.
Qin Haishan’s battle flag had no aura within the cave, but on the water curtain, everyone could see that the flag’s aura was rising rapidly.
Clearly, the power of this black battle flag was increasing at an extremely fast rate.
From the situation, it was undoubtedly Mo Shiyi and his group’s intention to quickly capture Qin Haishan’s team, but they had been perfectly avoided by Qin Haishan’s four members and were now futilely searching.
Previously, everyone had a.s.sumed that with Yu Shoucheng being the first to be eliminated, the victor of this flag-s.n.a.t.c.hing battle would likely be Mo Shiyi’s group.
After all, outnumbering and all being in the early Combined Aperture Tempering realm, it was unlikely for any other unexpected events to occur.
However, the current situation seemed to have taken a turn, with the balance tipping towards Qin Haishan’s side. As time pa.s.sed, this trend would become more apparent.
Yu Shoucheng floated in mid-air, watching the changes in the situation on the water curtain, his expression relaxing slightly. Even though it wasn’t the final moment, no one knew what would happen.
But at least, now within the Haiyue Cave, both sides had returned to a certain level of equilibrium.
Now it depended on whether Qin Haishan would raise the flag first or if Mo Shiyi’s group would capture them first. The longer it dragged on, the more favorable it would be for Qin Haishan’s side!
Inside the Haiyue Cave, as Mo Shiyi and his group completed their search of the last corner of their territory, their expressions turned serious.
They hadn’t found any trace of Qin Haishan and his three companions, nor had they discovered any formations. It was clear that at some point, Qin Haishan’s group had entered their territory without them noticing.
Furthermore, Mo Shiyi and his group realized that the resources within the opponent’s territory were extremely abundant, and the deeper they went, the more elemental energy they found. The resources near their cave had an astonishing amount of elemental energy.
“Let’s go back, we can’t let them continue to raise the flag!”
Mo Shiyi soared into the sky. They no longer had time to raise their own flag at this point. Even if they stopped to raise their flag, they would fall into the opponent’s rhythm.
There was no other option now; they had to go all-in and quickly find the four from the opposing side. Trying to both find them and raise the flag would only waste more time.
Several dozen miles away, Chen Fei was in the midst of slicing down a spirit fruit when he suddenly sensed the presence of the opponent’s flag.
Chen Fei employed the same tactics, summoning Qin Haishan and his three companions, suppressing the auras of all four, and then quietly slipping away to another location.
If it were just Chen Fei alone, evading would be simpler, even seamless.
However, without Qin Haishan and his three companions, if Chen Fei was alone and managed to remain hidden, Mo Shiyi might opt to raise the flag in their absence.
The speed at which one person could gather resources couldn’t compare to that of five people. Even if the opponent’s flag gained a lead, it could be caught up to eventually, and in the end, Chen Fei would lose.
Therefore, Chen Fei had to ensure that their team of four remained intact. Only then would the advantage of their flag continue to grow.
One-quarter of an hour later, Mo Shiyi and his group stopped searching. They still couldn’t find any trace of the opponent, no matter how hard they looked.
Their expressions had gone beyond seriousness at this point.
“Miao, find a concealed place and use a formation to conceal the flag’s aura.” Mo Shiyi handed the flag over to Miao Wanhong. While Mo Shiyi didn’t know how Qin Haishan’s group managed to conceal the flag’s aura and move so quickly while eluding them, their only option now was to conceal their own flag’s aura and send the other four to search for Qin Haishan’s group.
Otherwise, if they continued searching like this, they might end up being the losers.
Although handing the flag to Miao Wanhong was somewhat risky, there was no other way at this point.
“Okay!” Miao Wanhong nodded and then flew towards another location.
Mo Shiyi turned around with a cold expression. Now he wanted to see how the opponent would hide from them without the strong aura of their flag.
In a four versus four situation with the Profound Origin Pearl on their side, the advantage was still in their hands.
Several dozen miles away, Chen Fei sensed the aura of the opponent’s flag moving away, but suddenly, his mental state trembled.
Danger was approaching!