Chapter 75: Early Detection (1/2)
After leaving the campsite, Nie Tian and Pan Tao randomly picked a direction and walked for a period of time before stopping.
Staring off into the distance, Pan Tao said, “If we want the food from the Mystic Mist Palace to last until the Secret Dimension Gate opens, everyone will have to go hungry in the following days. It’s partly our fault, too. We were just focused on getting here as quickly as possible, and tossed away a lot of food along the way.”
Smiling, Nie Tian said, “Well, actually it’s because of me. Before you guys showed up, Zheng Bin believed that their food supply was more than enough, so he let me have as much as I wanted. He never thought you’d be in such a sorry situation, and arrive empty-handed.”
Nie Tian didn’t have much of an opinion of Zheng Bin, either good or bad.
After spending a while with the trial takers from the Mystic Mist sect, he came to realize that the atmosphere among them was extremely harmonious under his leadership.
Moreover, Zheng Bin wasn’t a stingy man. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have accommodated Nie Tian’s request for such a large amount of food.
“Yep, although I haven’t worked with Zheng Bin before, I heard that his reputation was pretty good.” Pan Tao laughed. “Although, he clearly doesn’t think much of the two of us, considering that he agreed for us to leave the group.”
“Hahaha, it’s not that big a deal. As long as we can find things to eat and keep everyone from starving, it’ll count as us repaying his kindness.” With these words, Nie Tian gradually closed his eyes, and unleashed his powerful psychic awareness to detect the signs of life in the vicinity.
Pan Tao saw what Nie Tian was doing, and stopped talking.
A while later, Nie Tian opened his eyes and shook his head. “There aren’t any living beings nearby. Let’s switch to another location.”
“Okay.”
The two of them roamed in the vicinity of the Secret Dimension Gate. From time to time, Nie Tian would use his psychic power to scan the area for fluctuations of life.
Unfortunately, there seemed to be no spirit beasts in the vicinity.
They switched from place to place, searching for signs of life, but they still couldn’t find anything.
Once again, Nie Tian probed about with his psychic power, eyes closed. It was at this point that he suddenly detected unusual fluctuations of Qi and blood coming from the deepest parts of the earth.
He suddenly became enlivened, assuming that there was a spirit beast similar to the Lurker Lizard, hiding somewhere in the depths of the earth. He immediately gathered his psychic awareness and sent it underground to search for it.
As soon as he did, he found that there were countless blood streams slowly flowing deep under the ground they were standing on.
The strange thing was that he felt somehow familiar with those blood streams…
“They’re from Yu Tong!”
All of a sudden, his expression changed as he concentrated even harder to sense the movements in the earth.
He could clearly detect that there weren’t any soul fluctuations in the blood streams, yet they were extending slowly and furtively towards the place where Zheng Bin and the others were.
They interweaved with each other, forming a dense and enormous web that seemed to be able to trap all living beings.
His eyes snapped open as he turned to Pan Tao, who was glancing around to keep guard, and said, “Something’s wrong! There are countless blood streams flowing in the deepest parts of the earth! I believe that those blood streams were released by Yu Tong! And their target is Zheng Bin and the others!”
“Countless blood streams from Yu Tong?” Surprised by Nie Tian’s words, Pan Tao started to ponder as his brow slowly furrowed.
Moments later, Pan Tao’s expression flickered as he exclaimed, “The Earth Web! It’s the Blood sect’s forbidden technique: Earth Web! People from the Blood sect and Ghost sect can’t be far from us! They’ve already locked onto us with the Blood Searching Compass! Damn! Nie Tian, we have to go back, now!”
Confused, Nie Tian asked, “What’s an Earth Web?”
“There’s no time for that,” Pan Tao replied. “We have to get back as soon as possible!”
Nie Tian was affected by Pan Tao’s nervousness and said, “Don’t tell them that I sensed the abnormality underground. Please help me keep it a secret.”
Pan Tao nodded. “I understand.”
Even before they entered the Green Illusion dimension, Pan Tao had guessed that it was because of some hidden agenda that An Shiyi arranged for a child from the Nie clan to participate in the trial with them.
After An Ying repeatedly implied for him and Zheng Rui to test out Nie Tian, he became even more certain about that.
However, deep down, he had already considered Nie Tian as an indispensable battle companion. In order to not lose Nie Tian, he knew perfectly well what to do.
Before long, the two returned to the area where everyone was gathered.