Chapter 299 - Su Yue (1/2)
The mist grew thicker, and soon, it had nearly engulfed the entire valley of flowers. Zhiluan could no longer see beyond a radius of nine meters and began to feel excited. “Meow! What’s going on here?” However, he knew that Xiao Chen was at a critical stage of his training and he could definitely not disturb him.
Suddenly, huge rays of neon light shot into the sky from the waterfall’s direction. Zhiluan could see everything clearly, even though his vision was obscured by a layer of white mist.
“Meow! Meow! Are you ascending, kid?”
The moment his voice rang out, the vapor around him began to flow quickly and surged toward the neon light from the waterfall. It was not due to the fact that the vapor was being sucked over. Rather, Spiritual Qi around them was being absorbed rapidly.
Gradually, the plants and trees around them began to shrivel, causing Zhiluan to exclaim in a strange voice, “This is bad, this is bad! Stop now, kid! My spirit energy has also been absorbed by you…”
A figure shot out from the waterfall before his voice had even died down. A faint white radiance surrounded his body, and he landed elegantly like a deity. It was Xiao Chen.
Xiao Chen pressed his palm onto Zhiluan, infusing some spirit energy into the cat. He flicked his sleeves, causing bits of white radiance to scatter over the shriveled-up flora, giving them new life.
“Chen’er, even though those who seek to attain immortality require Spiritual Qi from heaven and earth, they should never harm Mother Nature. You have to remember this,” said Ling Yin to him once. Xiao Chen had always kept this teaching to heart.
“Kid, did you manage to achieve a breakthrough?” Zhiluan asked anxiously.
“Guess,” replied Xiao Chen with a faint smile.
“I’m not guessing. Tell me now!”
Xiao Chen tilted his head upward and laughed. “I’m still not telling! Haha!” he said, before striding toward the Valley of Chaos. “Let’s go, Leopard Cat Spirit!”
Zhiluan hurriedly caught up with him and kept up with the questioning. “Tell me, kid. Have you broken into the Nascent Soul Realm? You’ve many enemies waiting for you outside this domain. If you haven’t achieved a breakthrough, it’s going to be very dangerous for me to follow you!”
Xiao Chen, however, remained grinning yet silent. He turned back to look in the direction of the otherworldly valley and the man encased in ice as they reached the entrance of the Chaotic Valley.
He made up his mind not to tell anyone about this realm, especially about the man in ice. By now, he had roughly guessed that the man was probably trying to make use of the abundant Spiritual Qi in the domain to revive himself.
“Alright, Leopard Cat Spirit, we’re leaving.”
Zhiluan was still frantically plucking divine berries nearby and wished he could have uprooted the entire tree. “Soon, soon. I’m going to finish plucking soon. Don’t rush me!” he muttered.
Xiao Chen shook his head and grinned before sitting down. He believed that everything beyond this domain was still fine. After a while, Zhiluan came over, dragging a huge sack along with him. Xiao Chen peeked into the sack, saying, “Even with Xian’er, you wouldn’t be able to finish all that. It’ll be such a waste if they rotted.”
“I don’t need your concern! I plucked all of them myself, and I’m not giving any of them to you when we leave!”
“Forget it, forget it. Let’s go,” Xiao Chen said, knocking the crack in the rocks away with one palm, revealing the Area of Chaos within. The man and the cat then walked in.
They had spent so much time in the dark. Suddenly, Xiao Chen could sense the light on his horizon grow stronger. For a while, he could not open his eyes, and when he could react, he found himself in a valley.
“Meow! Where are we? Are we back at Thousand Summits Mountain?”
Xiao Chen surveyed their surroundings and saw that they were in a barren area. A thick layer of snow covered the tree branches. “We should be outside Tianyuan City,” he said.
The amount of Spiritual Qi here was much lesser and insignificant compared to the mystic domain they were in before. No matter how hard he searched with his Divine Sense, he could no longer sense the domain again. This was also an amazing property of all mystic domains: no one could find them without knowing where the entrance and exit points were.
“I got a shock. I thought we’re back at Thousand Summits Mountain,” Zhiluan said, rubbing his chest.
“Let’s go, Tianyuan City should be very lively by now.”
Xiao Chen did not dally any longer and soared into the skies with the aid of Phoenix’s Wings. He looked for the direction to Tianyuan City and walked into the castle with the cat an hour later. It was already extremely lively inside, and the streets were full of people who were either locals of Tianyuan City, or cultivators from the various sects, or independent cultivators.
There was a hologram from the Immortals’ League channeling a formation in each square. Intense battles were happening on a huge screen; it was the Immortal’s Sword Assembly of Jade Terrace Mountain.