Chapter 71 – Illusory Fog Forest
Translator: Mr Voltaire
Editor: Phoobiee
Xiao Yun had arrived at a mountain range covered with mist, and it was incredibly difficult to see anything within it.
Within the mountain range, Xiao Yun was hanging like a monkey from a cliff face, picking a stem of spirit gra.s.s.
“I’ve finally obtained this Spirit Concentrating Gra.s.s.” Xiao Yun revealed an expression of delight as he held the spirit gra.s.s that flashed with a violet light.
By now, it had been 1 month since he had left the Violet Cloud County. During this month, he had travelled over land and water, and was thousands of kilometres away.
The Violet Cloud County was quite far away from the Imperial Capital. However, because there was still a fair amount of time before the Heaven Origin Sect’s examination, Xiao Yun wanted to experience more on his journey so as to raise his abilities.
Within the mountain range, he had hunted for food and spent nights in the open and fought with various demonic beasts. These experiences enabled him to not only step into the late stage of the Innate realm, but also allow his spirit energy to become stronger. It did not take him as much effort to control the Spirit-Destroying Spear anymore. However, evidently, it still was not possible for Xiao Yun to wield the Spirit-Destroying Spear with great skill and ease.
Currently, he had barely reached the complete stage of the First Layer of the Spirit-Destroying Divine Art. There were Nine Layers in total, and each Layer was divided into the early stage, middle stage, late stage and complete stage.
When he first reached the early stage of the First Layer, his spirit energy had become stronger. By the time it reached the middle stage, it was able to affect people’s minds, allowing him to attack while their defences were down. When he reached the late stage of the First Layer, Xiao Yun was able to condense his spirit energy into a thread and shoot it into enemy’s minds to attack. Upon reaching the complete stage of the First Layer, Xiao Yun was barely able to break through the seal on the first layer of the Heaven-Devouring Tower and receive the Spirit-Destroying Spear. However, he was not able to use it as he pleased - if he wanted to truly control it, he would have to advance to the Second Layer of the Spirit-Destroying Divine Art.
However, taking that single step was not so easy. It not only required many months of cultivating, but also large amounts of resources for his soul. This Spirit Concentrating Gra.s.s in his hands was one such thing that could help him strengthen his Spirit-Destroying Divine Art.
“With this Spirit Concentrating Gra.s.s, you’re only lacking soul essence and Violet Orchid Marrow to refine a Soul Heaven Pill.” Seeing Xiao Yun obtain the Spirit Concentrating Gra.s.s, the Heaven-Devouring Sparrow was ecstatic, because that sort of medicinal pill was incredibly important to it.
“Just wait for now,” Xiao Yun said as he rolled his eyes at the Heaven-Devouring Sparrow. After all, he hadn’t even broken through in his Spirit-Destroying Divine Art yet.
“You’re too stingy,” the Heaven-Devouring Sparrow retorted, feeling quite speechless.
“Aren’t you able to devour the vital essence of anything?” Xiao Yun said with a look of condescension, “How about I give you some Congealing Qi Pills?”
“What use are Congealing Qi Pills?” The Heaven-Devouring Sparrow lamented, “Even 10,000 Congealing Qi Pills can’t compare to a single Soul Heaven Pill. I’m currently in a soul-form, so I can’t store too much Essence Qi or vital essence. However, our Heaven-Devouring Sparrow bloodline has great affinity with fire, so if you can find me some fire-type spirit fruits or some Fire Veins, I’ll be able to quickly recover my strength.”
“Fire Vein?” Xiao Yun narrowed his eyes. He also wanted to find such a thing! Now that he had fused with the Violet Flame Martial Spirit, if he wanted the Martial Spirit to develop even further, he needed to absorb even more Fire Essence Qi.
If his Martial Spirit reached a certain state, he would be able to fight against even those with higher cultivations than him. After all, fire-users were quite rare in this place, and even a small tongue of flames could cause countless things to tremble in fear. However, it was difficult to produce such flames.
After obtaining the Spirit Concentrating Gra.s.s, Xiao Yun did not consume it immediately. After reaching this level in the Spirit-Destroying Divine Art, directly consuming a spirit gra.s.s wouldn’t help him break through. Only after refining it into a medicinal pill would it help him step into a higher realm.
After this, Xiao Yun continued to advance, hoping that he could find some more spirit gra.s.ses.
After walking for a while, Xiao Yun couldn’t help but frown. This was because there was a thick fog ahead of him, as well as miasma. His spirit energy would be affected if he released it.
“This mountain range is quite special!” Xiao Yun took out his map and studied it.
“Wait, this is the Illusory Fog Forest?” Xiao Yun suddenly shook his head.
The Illusory Fog Forest was covered with fog all year round, and he was currently within a forbidden area within the mountain range. Outsiders who entered very rarely made it out, because there were plants inside that gave hallucinogenic fragrances and affected one’s mind.
Xiao Yun hadn’t wanted to come here, but because he had been collecting spirit medicine the entire time, he had left the path that he had been following.
“This entire mountain range is covered with fog; I wonder where the exit is.” After walking through the forest for 2 days, Xiao Yun still hadn’t found a way to leave. Instead, he would be attacked by illusion beasts – they were a type of demonic beast that could spit out fog that could create illusions and hallucinations.
If normal people met these demonic beasts, their minds would be weakened by the fog, turning them into food for the demonic beasts. However, Xiao Yun’s spirit energy was fairly powerful, and had some resistance towards these demonic beasts.
During a fight with a group of demonic beasts, he had used his Firecloud Palms to beat back multiple demonic beasts. The illusion beasts seemed to be extremely fearful of fire, and Xiao Yun had killed many of them, averting the crisis.
However, because of this, he had drawn the fury of 2 True Essence realm illusion beasts, which almost killed him. In the end, Xiao Yun had been forced to use the Spirit-Destroying Spear, and after he killed a True Essence realm illusion beast, he was able to barely escape.
“Looks like this Illusory Fog Forest is incredibly dangerous; I should get out as soon as possible,” Xiao Yun said as he quickly rushed along.
It was simply too dangerous here – he could use his Spirit-Destroying Spear to fight against True Essence realm demonic beasts, but the Spirit-Destroying Spear simply consumed too much of his spirit energy. It was impossible to continuously use it in battle, so he couldn’t stay here for long.
“I need to quickly regain my strength.” When night fell, Xiao Yun chose to go into closed-door training within a cave, so as to restore his spirit energy.
Early the next day within the foggy forest, a ray of sunlight would pierce through into the forest.
“Let’s stop here and rest.” The sounds of marching suddenly could be heard from within this valley.
“The Third Miss’ wounds are serious, and can’t journey for long. We should indeed take a rest here,” the group of cultivators agreed as they stopped.
This was a group of people with a carriage. There were about 30 people who all wore the same clothes – evidently, they all belonged to the same power.
“Ai, it’s a pity that we don’t have any Antidote Pills,” the elders sighed as they looked at the carriage. “If we had an Antidote Pill, we would be able to cure the Third Miss’ poison, so that we can quickly return to the North Mist City.”
“Hmph, that Qi family’s too despicable! They actually set an ambush there, wanting to steal the Skyfire Medallion. In their dreams!” A cold look flashed in the men’s eyes as they coldly harrumphed, feeling immense hatred towards the Qi family.
“Be still,” the elder in the lead said with a serious expression.
The elder was over 50-years-old, but still looked mighty and vigorous. His eyes flashed with light, and he gave off extraordinary airs. He was a True Essence realm expert, and after he spoke, the other men stopped chattering.
After everyone stopped, they started to set up tents.
“We’ll stay here for a day so that everyone can rest well. That Qi family definitely won’t let us off,” a middle-aged man said. His cultivation was at the complete stage of the Innate realm, and his voice sounded like thunder.
Within a tent, a girl in green cried out worriedly, “Second Patriarch, the Third Miss can’t hold on for much longer.”
“Has Rong’Er’s poison started acting up again?” The True Essence realm elder frowned as he hurriedly entered the tent.
“Ai, the Qi family’s simply too shameless. Not only did they ambush us, they even used poison.”
“Now that the Third Miss has been poisoned, if she can’t endure it, she might not be able to survive!”
“It’s a pity for our North Mist City’s number 1 beauty to fall into such dire straits.” Some youths were gathered beside some other tents, frowning as they looked over towards that tent in the middle.
A beauty who was delicate as a flower and as refined as a precious jade dying was simply a great pity. Even the middle-aged men patrolling around looked quite worried.
“Someone’s here.” At this moment, everyone looked over towards the distance.
There, a youth was slowly walking towards them.
“When did that boy appear?” Everyone felt incredibly shocked. Many of the men squatting down stood up and gripped their weapons, preparing to attack at any moment. Seeing these people, the youth slightly frowned.
Naturally, this youth was Xiao Yun.
Xiao Yun had been recovering in a cave nearby and had tried to break through the seal on the second layer of the Heaven-Devouring Tower; however he had failed. He had detected that a group of people had arrived near the cave, and from the way they talked, they seemed quite familiar with this place. As such, Xiao Yun wanted to leave with these people from this ghostly forest.
Xiao Yun felt a bit surprised when he saw how alert everyone looked, but did not stop walking. Instead, he sent his spirit energy out towards the tent in the middle and heard a young woman’s breathing.
“So she’s poisoned.” After sensing around with his spirit energy, Xiao Yun became a bit more familiar with the group’s circ.u.mstances.
“Who are you?” When the men all saw that Xiao Yun was still walking over, they glared at him savagely.
One of the men at the complete stage of the Innate realm stepped out, looking like he wanted to stop Xiao Yun.
“I was just pa.s.sing through here, but got lost in this forest,” Xiao Yun said as he stopped walking. He smiled and said, “Would you be able to help me find the way out?”
“Lost?” The man at the complete stage of the Innate realm stared at Xiao Yun, and the look of wariness disappeared. The other men also relaxed as well. The two parties were fairly close, and the man could now see Xiao Yun’s appearance. He was only a youth of 16 or 17 years, so there was nothing to be afraid of.
Although he did not take Xiao Yun to be a threat, the man did not allow Xiao Yun to approach.
The man asked with a serious expression, “Where are you from?” They were all currently in bad shape, so if someone with ill intentions mixed among them, things would be problematic.
“I’m from the Violet Cloud County, thousands of kilometres away from here,” Xiao Yun replied.
“Violet Cloud County?” The man raised his eyebrows as he looked up and down Xiao Yun, saying, “Your accent doesn’t seem to be from here, but we aren’t able to accommodate you right now. It’s best if you leave here and find another path.”
When he saw how these people were acting, Xiao Yun couldn’t help but frown.
“What’s happening?” An elder walked out from within the tent, looking over with a burning gaze.