Chapter 263: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Azure Dragon Empire!”
This name floated in Jiang Yi’s mind again, as only the members of the Azure Dragon Empire could possess so many saint artifacts. As Jiang Yi watched the small cauldron fly rapidly— leaving behind its afterimage, the powerful pressure made those welled-up blood in his mouth constantly flow out. He had no choice but to put all his hopes on the Fire Spirit Rock. If it couldn’t destroy this saint artifact, he only had death awaiting him!
“Tsk-Tsk!”
The Fire Spirit Rock appeared as the Fire Spirit Pearl glowed while he used all his strength to flick at the Fire Spirit Rock, propelling it forward to clash with the small cauldron.
“Tsk-Tsk!”
This Fire Spirit Rock didn’t disappoint Jiang Yi. Since it could burn through the Man-Ruler Seal, it was naturally able to destroy this saint artifact, too. Once the small cauldron made contact with the Fire Spirit Rock, it immediately burst out with a lofty green light before quickly becoming dim. The Fire Spirit Rock had penetrated the small cauldron and scorched a small hole, completely ruining it.
“Pfff…”
The black-robed man violently spurted a mouthful of fresh blood while the black cloth covering his face was dyed with red. This saint artifact had been refined by him, and now that it was destroyed, he naturally received some backlash. His eyes were filled with bewilderment and disbelief; he didn’t believe the Fire Spirit Rock was able to destroy his saint artifact—even though he felt that prowess of it earlier.
“Swis.h.!.+”
Jiang Yi rushed towards frenziedly and took advantage of the enemy’s weakness. His enemy was stunned by the Fire Spirit Rock, and Jiang Yi naturally wouldn’t let go of such a good opportunity.
“Swis.h.!.+”
Unexpectedly, the black-robed man only paused for a moment and didn’t rush at Jiang Yi with fury, turning to flee instead. This individual was at a higher stage than the eighth stage of Soul Travel Realm, and his speed was just too fast, instantly putting a distance between the two of them.
“Big Huang!”
Jiang Yi absorbed the Earth Fire and yelled out as the Zouwu Beast appeared in front of him; he quickly rode on it and chased after the black-robed man.
“Something isn’t right!”
After chasing for more than ten miles, Jiang Yi suddenly got a shock and realized that this individual was escaping in the opposite direction as the individual with the little fox. He was luring Jiang Yi away from his objective.
“Big Huang, turn back!”
It didn’t matter if he could kill this person or not; even if Jiang Yi was to catch up, he might not be able to kill him, too. His mission was to track the little fox; if not, all their efforts put into chasing these people would have been in vain.
“Moo-Moo!”
As Big Huang moved at an extreme speed, Jiang Yi’s constantly took deep breaths with his nose, following and tracking down the scent of the little fox. After being messed up by this black-robed man, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to catch up to them within a short period of time. It was already praiseworthy to not lose track of them. The target was much faster than the Zouwu Beast; and if they weren’t underground, Jiang Yi didn’t even need to chase.
One hour later…!
Jiang Yi stopped as he glanced at an underground river with a bitter expression.
He could no longer track the scent of the little fox. The opposition seemed to have guessed that Jiang Yi could track the little fox’s scent, and they decided to escape through the underground river, which was able to conceal the little fox’s scent.
The underground river originated from the east and flowed to the west, Jiang Yi didn’t know if he should swim up or downstream. He was by himself and didn’t have the skill to travel in two different directions.
“Let’s go!”
He had to test his luck as he controlled the Zouwu Beast to swim downstream. In the end… after pursuing for an entire day, Jiang Yi could no longer detect the scent of the little fox.
“Bang!”
He controlled the Zouwu Beast to fly upwards and summoned the Dragon Eagle to scout the surroundings. After being certain that he had lost track of the target, he couldn’t take it anymore as he asked the Dragon Eagle to dive before he casually found a cave to sleep in.
Making haste for several days and nights, continuously searching for the little fox’s scent—coupled with the injuries he suffered and the frustration for losing track of his objective, Jiang Yi was now both mentally and physically fatigued to the extreme.
After sleeping for six hours, Jiang Yi was awakened from a nightmare. He dreamed of a city that was being destroyed by the demonic beast army while countless humans were torn apart by the demonic beasts. There were many children crying loudly while all the people had expressions of fear and despair. The city was littered with corpses, and their blood flowed into a river, forming this appalling scene of devastation.
“Dragon Eagle, let’s go!”
Jiang Yi wiped off the cold sweat and didn’t feel any fatigue anymore as he continued to soar in the sky with the Dragon Eagle in the Saint Spirit Kingdom, searching for the little fox.
Riding on the Quinary Color Peac.o.c.k, Princ.i.p.al Qi spotted Jiang Yi a day later. Their group which originally had five was now left with four as one of the Vice Princ.i.p.als died in battle. Apart from Princ.i.p.al Qi, the other three were all injured; and one of Vice Princ.i.p.al Liu’s arms was actually missing, severed by the enemy.
“All of them are Suicide Guards; none of them are alive! All five of them committed suicide by consuming poison which corroded their corpses!”
Princ.i.p.al Qi’s eyes were filled with fatigue. When she found out that Jiang Yi had lost track of the little fox, her body shook and nearly fell off the Quinary Color Peac.o.c.k. She endured the fatigue and quickly took out a jade token to communicate with Zhuge Qingyun, bringing great news that invigorated everyone.
The Water Moon Observatory, Great Zen Monastery, Azure Dragon College, and Centaurea College had all sent men to make haste towards the Saint Spirit Kingdom, a.s.sisting them to chase after the little fox.
The Water Moon Observatory, Great Zen Monastery, and the three major colleges were independent of the six va.s.sal states, but these five influential powers didn’t have the ambition and strength to vie for supremacy. Hence, it was natural that they weren’t the suspects and could be trusted.
Jiang Yi and his group dragged along their fatigued body and continued to search but were even more disappointed. They had done a detailed search in the nearby 10,000-mile-radius but couldn’t detect any scent of the little fox.
Jiang Yi had used the elixir and black essence force to enhance his sense of smell. As long as there were some traces of the little fox’s scent, he would have picked it up. Now without any being able to detect anything, meant that the little fox was hidden inside a special artifact or… dead!
“Dead…”
Jiang Yi was filled with fear when he thought about that outcome. If the little fox was dead, the Demon Empress would surely go berserk which might even overpower the alliance of Shui Youlan and the others. If that moment came, the continent would be overwhelmed by a blood storm; and this calamity would cause a huge blow to the human race, which would probably wipe out half the human population on the continent.
Several days later, the demonic beast army had already arrived at the central area of the Saint Spirit Kingdom, cleansing numerous cities with blood. The Saint Spirit Kingdom didn’t put up a full-force resistance and kept on retreating. There were still around 200,000 soldiers that were slaughtered during this period of time; even after the Demon Empress gave her orders to not kill any commoners, over 100,000 commoners were still brutally killed by the low-tiered demonic beasts.
The reinforcements from the Great Zen Monastery, Water Moon Observatory, and the two major colleges came swiftly as they rendezvoused with Jiang Yi to continue searching in the Saint Spirit Kingdom. After spending more than seven days, the demonic beast army had arrived at the north of Saint Spirit Kingdom; but there were still no traces at all.
There was something that puzzled many of them was that the demonic beast army continued to rush north and was just a hundred-mile journey from the royal capital of Saint Spirit Kingdom, but the Demon Empress actually didn’t order the army to attack the royal capital. They remained on their path straight north, as though they had devastated the Saint Spirit Kingdom enough and was preparing to march against the Northern Mang Kingdom!
“North? North!”
Jiang Yi and the group were currently searching in the northern part of the Saint Spirit Kingdom. When they got news that the demonic beast army was just hundreds of miles south of them, Princ.i.p.al Qi asked everyone to evacuate; but Jiang Yi suddenly comprehended something!
“North, Northern Mang Kingdom, Azure Dragon Empire!”
He muttered for a moment and looked towards the north before he suddenly yelled out, “Stop searching and go straight to Stellarsky City, the little fox is definitely going to be brought to the Stellarsky City! The one who kidnapped the little fox isn’t from Azure Dragon Empire! Their objective is to allow the demonic beast army to destroy Stellarsky City and destroy the Azure Dragon Empire!”
There was something else that was in Jiang Yi’s mind which he didn’t say. There was a stalwart figure that appeared in his mind… Jiang Bieli!
He had this subtle feeling that such a brazen, ruthless, and ambitious plot could only be schemed by that father of his who had great skill, strategy, and martial prowess—who was also determined to be the no.1 official throughout the ages!