Chapter 274: The Abyss (1/2)

The four Qing immortals got quite a distance away before they realized something was awry.

“Hold on, stop!” Qing Quan came to a skidding halt. He turned his head, clearly irked.

“What is it?” another dao immortal stopped to ask.

“Wellspring is a dao immortal who has picked three aether dao fruits. A real detonation of his life sphere would’ve severely injured me and even the three of you! But I’m perfectly fine right now… we’ve been tricked!” Qing Quan said through gritted teeth. The other immortals looked at each other, stunned by the statement. “The power back there was fierce and destructive, but it was firmly concentrated, not at all what an otherkind’s self-destruction should be like!

“Let us return!” Qing Quan glided across the sky on a beam of sword light. His three peers shouted angrily before following suit.

Alas, the place where they’d fought previously was completely calm. It was as if nothing had happened there at all. No signs of devastation from a life sphere detonation existed, with only the traces of a battle between five dao immortals remaining.

Clearly, the scene Wellspring had made just now was merely smoke and mirrors.

“They won’t have gotten far. After them!” The four immortals split off in separate directions, taking pursuit against an imagined enemy.

……

Wellspring’s vitality was burning away. He was going as fast as he could. Stream after stream of seawater gathered behind him, wrapping up the skiff in a swift current that carried it along.

Suddenly, he came to a stop. His face was deathly pale, having sustained grievous injuries in the fight against the four Qing immortals. The exhaustion that was accumulated from burning his lifeforce to flee had only worsened his condition.

“A little bit further and you’ll be out of Nephrite Major. The North Sea monster court rules the waters ahead, so this is as far as I can take you,” he said helplessly.

“Thank you for saving us, Senior Well. Please feel free to leave us here,” Lu Yun hurriedly responded. He’d expected the Qing Clan’s interference, but not their ulterior motive to kill a dao immortal from the Skandha Range.

“Young lord!” Wellspring grew deadly serious. “Though you are a Lu and have admitted to as much before the public, you must still beware of your clan!”

Lu Yun blinked.

“Do you remember those who came to Dusk Province before, wanting to turn you into a puppet? The Lu Clan is under the control of their ilk now.” Wellspring’s voice grew cold. Although he usually led a quiet life, the otherkind was no stranger to violence. His nickname as a demon was well-deserved, as he’d slaughtered at least one clan that’d crossed him in his time.

In other words, he was not a good person.

Though he didn’t pay much mind to the outside world after secluding himself, he had heard tangential rumors about Lu Yun and his clan. Moreover, the heads of the Skandha Range were a network of contacts and info all on their own. They weren’t omnipotent, certainly, but they knew far more than one would expect.

“The reason Mauve Peace Paradise fell to the Jin Clan and Lu Daoling lost after being attacked by mysterious experts… was because he was sold out by those people. In fact, it’s their existence that caused the Lu Clan’s near destruction a hundred years ago. So as I’ve said, be careful.”