Chapter 690: Grand Sage
The other cultivators remained calm after hearing this. Each of them realized that spell restrictions were used to trap them because the enemy lacked the forces to engage them. However, they couldn’t remained trapped for too long, else the Moulan’s reinforcements would arrive.
The Nascent Soul cultivators each began to flicker with light, making full use of their abilities as they began to strike the restrictions surrounding them. As Han Li remained in the air, he waved his arm in passing, releasing three streaks of azure light from his hand. An instant later, the three streaks of azure light flew off into the distant winds of sand.
Rippling fluctuations began to appear under their strikes. In a flicker of yellow light, the restrictions began to tear as if they were made of thin paper.
The others were shocked at how easy this was. When Han Li saw this, his expression greatly changed and he hurriedly flew forward through the gap that opened. It was quite ordinary for a hastily placed restriction to be easily struck down. There was no need for hesitation.
Han Li’s blunt and sudden actions had shocked the others. But they immediately understood and closely followed after him.
Once they escaped, they still found themselves in winds filled with sand, but the stifling sensation of the restriction could no longer be felt. Han Li felt some relief from this and swept his spiritual sense around, wishing to regain his bearings before taking further action.
But at that moment, Han Li’s expression stirred and his eyes narrowed. As he motionlessly floated in the air, he stared off into a certain direction of the sand. His eyes pulsed with faint blue light in a demonic display. A moment later, his expression returned to normal.
As Marquis Nanlong caught up to Han Li, he noticed that Han Li was motionless. He bewilderedly swept his spiritual sense in the direction that Han Li was looking,and he discovered nothing strange. He bafflingly asked, “Fellow Daoist Han, what are you doing?”
Han Li turned his head towards the Marquis and calmly said, “Nothing, I was only pondering. Which direction should we go?”
“It is hard to make use of our spiritual sense in this cursed sandstorm, and the naked eye is hardly any better for making a decision. But just as it so happenes, I have a star alignment treasure that is suitable for the situation.” Initially scoffing at being asked, Marquis Nanlong reached to his waist and took out a faint red jade disk.
With the one hand holding at the jade disk, he formed an incantation gesture with the other. After muttering a cryptic incantation, he opened the hand with the incantation gesture and a golden light shot out from his palm, striking on of the talisman characters on the disk. The disk then began to shine with a weird red-gold light.
Han Li’s heart stirred and he took another glance at the magic treasure. There was marvelous designs made of golden starlight that shined from the plate that seemed to signify stars, the sun and moon, as well as other astrological symbols.
Han Li was entranced by the sight of it. The others also crowded around with curious expressions.
Marquis Nanlong wasn’t bothered by this and merely concentrated on the patterns shining on the jade disk. A short moment later, he put away the treasure with a flip of his hand and briefly said, “Follow me!” He then enveloped himself in a ball of golden light and shot off.
The rest of the party wordlessly followed after him. They were clearly confident in the Marquis’ judgement.
In a flash of black light, Wang Tiangu enveloped Wang Chan and Yan Ruyan and brought them along. However, when he passed by Han Li, the Ghost Spirit Sect elder seemed to faintly glance at him before calmly brushing past him.
Han Li returned the glance with a mysterious smile. He faintly saw that Wang Chan had lowered his head and didn’t dare to look in his direction in a rather meek fashion. On the contrary, the beautiful Yan Ruyan calmly turned her gaze towards Han Li for a short while with bright eyes before turning away.
Han Li soon found himself at the rear of the group. But with a careless smile, his body flashed with azure light as if about to set flight. But before that, he unconsciously turned his gaze to where he glanced previously and wore an odd expression. He then coldly chuckled and flew off.
In that instant, Han Li’s figure disappeared into the sandstorm.
A short moment after Han Li disappeared, a flash of blinding yellow light shined from where he had been looking at. A huge dark hole that suddenly appeared from the ground where a huge shiny black insect had crawled out of.
This demon insect was astonishingly large and was about twenty meters long and twelve meters wide. Its body was in the shape of a disk. But what was most frightening about it was the dozens of dark yellow compound eyes spread on its head. There were also several slender horns on its head along with a pair of massive, incisive fangs that coldly glinted. There were also four transparent wings on its back that were gently fluttering.
Standing on top of this dreadful demon insect were three silhouettes of varying heights. One of them shined with blinding white light and another was enveloped in a strange dark green mist, obscuring his true form. As for the last figure, their body flickered with faint blue lightning as if they were a materialized god of lightning.
“Grand Sage, are we just going to allow them to leave? Is this not bad?” The silhouette covered in white light glanced in the direction that Han Li’s party disappeared in. His words carried a faint trace of worry.
The green mist figure coldly snorted and icily said, “How could an illusion formation possibly constrain them? Don’t forget that they are mostly Nascent Soul stage cultivators, characters at the same grade as us. Even the weakest two are still late Core Formation cultivators. It is delusional to think that our Yellow Sand Tribe could hope to restrain them.” His temperament seemed harsh.
“But how will we deal with the Heavenly Wind Tribe’s Sage Mu? He was the one who personally sent a message to have use block the group of cultivators to our greatest ability. The vanguard is under his tribe’s command for the time being. He should’ve already sent orders to gather the Grand Sages from the other tribes. Would it be better for us to unleash our tribe’s holy protection artifact, the Devilearth Banner? Even if we can’t cause the Nascent Soul cultivators much harm, it should be possible to trap them for the time being.” The white light silhouette raised the proposal with an anxious tone.
The green mist figure grew furious and bluntly rebuked, “Nonsense! How can we so casually use the thirty six Devilearth Banners? The ancestors of our Yellow Sand Tribe have always instructed us to never use the sacred banner unless our tribe is on the verge of extermination. And even if these cultivators were trapped for a time, given their abilities, they would certainly destroy a few of the banners. How would we respond then? Without the sacred tribe protecting artifacts, how could we steadily maintain our position in the ten great tribes? There may be even a few smaller tribes that may pry into the matter and exterminate us.”
“I was careless! Many thanks for Grand Sage’s reminder.” The spell warrior within the white light hastily apologized for his offence.
“Since you’ve only recently become a Sage, this fault will be forgiven just this once! In any case, it’s not as if we did nothing. They were simply too powerful and we were incapable of restraining them. Grand Sage Mu sure had a good idea to send our Yellow Sand Tribe to tie the intruders down. Once both sides suffered, he’d conveniently arrive to finish them off and take the lion’s share of the credit and loot. On the other hand, if we don’t take out our tribe protecting artifacts to block them, we will be seen as harboring malicious intentions, leaving an opportunity for them to enact reprisals!” The Grand Sage in the green mist coldly spoke as if he had an extremely poor opinion of the Sage Mu.
The Moulan spell warrior shrouded in lightning calmly said, “I fear this is how Sage Mu intends to act. After all, our two tribes never did have a good relationship. However, we are now allied armies and aren’t truly subordinate to them. Our loss of strength isn’t truly something they will take to heart. Moreover, the Heavenly Wind Tribe’s Wind Riding Chariot is extremely fast. It should be able to overtake the intruders. Hehe, it will be hard to say who will end up victorious! But so long as they managed to buy enough time for the main force to arrive, the Heavenly Wind Tribe will be the victors.”
The Grand Sage in the green mist disagreed, “Although the Wind Riding Chariot is extremely fast, by the time enough people are gathered together to use it, it will perhaps be too late.”
After a moment of thought, the Grand Sage muttered, “Whether or not those cultivators are caught is no concern of ours. But I am puzzled about the youth that managed to first breakthrough the formation. It seemed he discovered where our concealed hole was. How baffling. The Xumi Insect is an exotic insect from antiquity, and although its combat power isn’t great, it has the innate ability to temporarily tear a crevice in space. It in an expert in concealment. Although it is still immature and the amount of time it can maintain a spacial tear is limited, it was still enough to prevent the two mid Nascent Soul cultivators from discovering us. But unexpectedly, it wasn’t enough to prevent this particular early Nascent Soul cultivator from discovering us. It seems that youth is an exceptional character. If it isn’t due to a particular secret technique, then it must be from an exceptionally powerful probing treasure.” A trace of bewilderment could be heard from the Grand Sage’s voice.
