Chapter 128: Fu Ying Jie, Where Are You? [I] (1/2)

Ying Jie sat in a lotus position inside his room, removed the two valuable content of his sacbag and began to examine them.

The  first was the Wyvern Scale spirit fruit that would make his body almost indestructible when facing a jindan level cultivator and below. What a fortuitous encounter this was. Though, he was still far from the stage necessary if he wanted to make any difference concerning his parents, this was a step in the right direction.

And the second item?

Never in his wildest dreams, would he ever imagine himself in possession of it. His mind started repeating the events of the forsaken palace. After acquiring the fruit in the garden of the Jade emperor, he remembered the gruesome encounters with the Crucible and the golems. He had never experienced such mind-wrenching confrontation in his life before that. He never even thought he could experience such in this world, yet, he had.

Nonetheless, he had entered the forsaken palace and everything had frozen around him. Only, his ears were functioning as he heard the words of the giant guardian, Darghek, about appearing in various fruititous, yet, deadly places.

As his feet landed on the other side, he struggled for a firm hold as they were crunching over the crystal carpet of snow blanketing the ground. A storm had recently battered this area from the feel and look of things. Ying Jie steadied himself before looking around. He was standing on a snowy plain with scattered pine trees covered in snow. Right in front of him, was a road that led to a passage between two small mountains at a distant.

After taking a closer look, he could guess the passage led to a valley of some sort. With no one around him, he walked with a cautious steady pace in the direction of the valley. As he forged ahead, he noticed another storm that was rolling in with deadly icy wind. But he ignored the slashing wind, clawing at the exposed flesh on the face and hands as he pushed some Chi energy into his outer body.

An icy wind like this, he could ignore. He remembered when his parents were captured in that cave when he was young and he had to spend many nights shivering in the abandoned caves and desolate valleys as he hid himself from the sinful demons. And they could have caught him, if not for the two elders from his village who happened upon him at the right time.

He could still remember, like tormenting nightmares, everytime he closed his eyes. Before rising through the ranks of the village's rising stars, he had fought and impressed with other kids of his village to lay a claim to the village's susteinance and support. One of the given support, was sending him to the Last-Sword sect. A privilege that came with his position as a rising star.

With eyes kept on the road ahead, he continued moving forward. Though, he had no idea of where he was heading, yet, he understood that there was a compulsion laid on him to forge ahead.

The storm and icy winds, were only ephemeral, an illusion brought about by his appearance in an unknown place and a way to make his nature, stronger.

As he walked on, Ying Jie came to a side of the valley that was a little bit steeper than the rest of the area and was littered with rubbles and some boulders. It sloped down to a strait of a flowing river. On the other side of the strait, were two creatures engaged in a gruesome battle. One was a massive Shadow Raven while the other was a huge White Mountain Crow.

Ying Jie quickly ducked for cover behind a large boulder before peeping around the boulder to observe the scene before him. The small hills and mountains in the sorroundings of the fighting beasts, had been shattered and the ground was filled with giant slashes and gashes with few bodies of giant birds littering the ground.

Volants. Air sacred beasts.

Since they were in their bed forms, it meant they were yet to reach the full transformation stage. Yet, they were still powerful enough to kill him.

Ying Jie continued to watch the raging battle from behind the boulder. At the other side of the batle, was a sealed massive cave that was shimmering in death energy. It appeared the two sacred beasts were fighting over what was inside the cave. What could possibly be inside a cave like that? A death treasure or a primordial beast? No matter what it was, he was not going towards that direction.

He had to be very careful here. If they sensed his presence nearby, they would be quick to turn on him, though, he would simply use the safe words and leave the place. Still, he had no plan to leave until he was sure of leaving. With extreme caution, he continued to watch and he saw the two battling birds, separated for a moment as they regarded themselves.

From where he was hiding, he could clearly hear what they were saying as their voices sounded out.

”Raven!”

Shouted the giant crow whose feathers were like deadly arrows.