Chapter 901: Covering Up The Truth And The Loophole
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
In the vast lands of the Barren Expanses, Lin Feng stopped in his tracks and began casting various spells while the golden bowl and the cicada wings transformed into golden light and spiraled in midair.
The trail of the golden lights’ movement seemed messy and disorganized, but there were a lot of concepts embodied within and eventually formed an enormous and complicated pattern in the sky.
Lin Feng flicked his fingers and thick purple energy completely enveloped the giant complicated pattern formed by the golden light.
The golden pattern flickered incessantly as if it was colored with a layer of purple. Streaks of formless waves undulated and expanded outwards with the pattern at its center and traveled far and wide and eventually dissipated between heaven and earth.
Lin Feng’s consciousness followed the expansion of these waves and extended outwards like a blanket in an attempt to search for the Golden Cicada Master.
The Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage emerged from the void and settled down as he watched Lin Feng execute the spell. He studied it for a moment before he thought to himself, “The leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders possesses such complex and profound mantras that are far superior to my own. If I were the one with the golden bowl and the cicada wings, while I can make my own attempt at finding the Golden Cicada Master, my chances of success are far worse and I will be easily shaken off as well.”
Lin Feng’s consciousness continued to expand with himself as the center of it all as he probed everything around him.
A path shimmered and appeared through the void between the oscillations of the formless waves of light. This path meandered through space and continued to extend forward.
This path was extremely strange as it had so many kinks and turns inside that no natural law could explain it. In other parts, once it had extended to a certain area, it would turn backwards towards the starting point.
Towards the middle, the road made a sharp right-angle turn before it made another right-angle turn. If one combined both turns together, it was as good as turning back towards the point of origin.
This was just a small section of a long and stretched-out road, and this turning and twisting road that was formed by the purple light continued to display this strange pattern.
This circumstance came about because this path went through layers of space and the result was transformations in inexplicable ways.
Lin Feng and the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage watched on in silence. They were not too eager to follow down this path and patiently waited for the entire road to fully reveal itself to the very end.
Over the entire process, Lin Feng’s consciousness had been searching his surroundings at the same time and his heart suddenly skipped a beat. “Oh? Why is here as well?”
He had discovered that there was a battle raging somewhere over the horizon.
The two parties engaged in furious battle was a large ape who had black fur all over except for a green-colored face and a green-colored chest. Between huffs and puffs, gusts of Yin wind billowed across the heavens like thin strands of black thread.
However, everything that these Yin winds that resembled strands of black threads touched became lifeless and lost all vitality even though there was no conspicuous physical change. It felt like these things experienced an extreme chill that came out from within and extended all the way out.
The Nine Nether Draught, which was part of the Four Grand Primordial Winds, was similar in quality to the Xuanming Primordial Water which was part of the Six Great Primordial Waters – they were both items of extreme coldness.
In stark contrast to the outside-in effects of the Xuanming Primordial Water, the Nine Nether Draught was the complete opposite. The Nine Nether Draught targeted the souls of living beings and froze them first before it corroded the physical body and shell.
A person frozen by the Xuanming Primordial Water would become like an ice statue. However, if one was frozen by the Nine Nether Draught, one would lose all vitality and become like a clay puppet.
Both items had their own unique applications and special and distinct methods were required to counter them as well, and both were also considered exotic items of the world.
The Nine Nether Draught’s originated from the Netherworld Sea of the Grand Celestial Seven Seas and did not show itself easily. Even if a crack appeared in the Netherworld Sea and several drafts were released, they were also in small amounts.
The Nine Nether Draught of the Netherworld Sea was incredibly dense and unbelievably violent; It blanketed the entire region and threatened to freeze everything it came into contact with. The calamity it would bring had a shared fame with the Nefarious Spectral Primordial Fire, the Blood River Primordial Water and the Avici Infernal Gale.
Outside the Netherworld Sea, there was a race amongst the Grand Celestial World that could channel the power of the Nine Nether Draught – it was one of the branches of the Ancient Ape Demons, the Nine Netherworld Ghost Monkey tribe.
The black monkey with the green face that was discovered by Lin Feng’s consciousness and was spitting out the Nine Nether Draught was a monkey king that had already formed the demon soul.
To the best of Lin Feng’s knowledge, the leader of the Nine Netherworld Ghost Monkey tribe should also be a grand sage-level demon, and was known as the Nine Netherworld Grand Sage. However, due to the fact that he did not typically show himself to the world, nobody knew the true level of his mastery.
Lin Feng had never come across a Nine Netherworld Ghost Monkey before, and it was the first time that he had seen a live one. Rather, it was this monkey’s adversary that Lin Feng was more familiar with – it was the disciple of the Ethereal Mountain that he had met with a few times before, Chu Yang.
For some reason, he was also inside the Barren Expanses.
Strictly spoken, the Lingyuan Mountain range inhabited by the Ancient Ape Demons was quite a distance from the inter-world passage between the Divine Lands and the Barren Expanses. The position that Chu Yang was in, for a human cultivator, was considered to be extremely deep into the Barren Expanses.
He was not here to hunt demons and had been careful throughout his entire journey. He used the Southwest You Heaven Sword from the Great Nine Heavens Holy Swords of the ancient Heaven’s Gate Sect to mask his movement to avoid clashing with demons.
Great demons were not too concerned about a puny aurous core stage cultivator such as him, and most demon commanders and demonic lord stage demons were not able to see through his spell and he ended up travelling to the Lingyuan Mountains.
“It’s a pity that the Creation Heavenly Crystal is embedded under the mountain, and I will definitely provoke this monkey if I wish to retrieve it. If not, I will be able to thieve it discreetly and leave without anybody knowing about me.” Chu Yang faced the Nine Netherworld Ghost Monkey before him calmly. He wanted to carry out his operation as discreetly as possible, but in order to obtain the object he came here to retrieve, he had no choice but to provoke his current opponent.
Faced with the ferocious Nine Netherworld Ghost Monkey in front of him, Chu Yang’s eyes flashed with cold light.
He had always been relatively relentless, but he typically held back his abilities in order to protect the secrecy of his movement.
However, once his hand had been forced, he would give his all to defeat and murder his adversary and kept no prisoners.
“This is the region of the Nine Netherworld Ghost Monkeys. If I dally, I will only attract more demon monkeys.” The cold and ruthless expression in his eyes vanished, and only unwavering focus was left.
His sword changed stance all of a sudden and sharp streak of blinding sword radiance surged into vision. Raging flames were unleashed from within, and resembled that of the rising Sun.
The vast spheres of light itself resembled the bright sun in the sky and blanketed the world in an instant, barricading himself against the gusts of Nine Nether Draught directed towards him.
The scorching heat made the demon monkey grind his teeth. “This isn’t the real Grand Sun Primordial Fire – yet the concept of power is exactly the same as that of the Grand Sun Primordial Fire! One strike of the sword and he has unleashed the pet technique of the Golden Crows, the Grand Sun Primordial Fire Technique. What kind of swordplay is this?”
The Heaven’s Gate Sect had been laid to ruin for a long time, and there were not that many people even in the Divine Lands that could recognize Chu Yang’s Southeast Yang Heaven Sword.
Great demons that had been through the Antiquity Age would have been able to recognize the background of this strike. However, this particular demon ape had only been around for less than a thousand years, and he was naturally unable to recognize this.
Chu Yang’s longsword was raised high above his head like the sun in noontime. The sword radiance continued to light up the entire area, while the pale-golden light streaks returned to its initial tranquility and quiet warmth.
However, the demon monkey did not dare to underestimate the power of this move and the ‘sun’ in the sky that was bright but not unbearably hot. Chu Yang used this move to break his Nine Nether Draught, even though Chu Yang was only in the aurous core stage and he was already in the demonic lord stage.
Of course, neither Chu Yang nor the Nine Netherworld Ghost Monkey realized that everything they were doing fell into Lin Feng’s eyes.
Lin Feng grinned as he watched Chu Yang’s every move. “Not bad, not bad. It’s no longer immature, but the complete lineage of the Great Nine Heavens Holy Sword Technique.”
In comparison to the incomplete lineage of the Heaven’s Gate Sect passed down to the East Heaven’s Gate, Chu Yang’s Great Nine Heavens Holy Sword Technique was a lot more organized and mature. However, it seemed as if he had only obtained this technique from his mentors but not the other mantras and abhijna from the Heaven’s Gate Sect.
“But…” Lin Feng’s eyes furrowed a little as he realized something was wrong.
Chu Yang was completely unaware, but nothing escaped Lin Feng’s eyes. On top of the Nine Netherworld Peak that was the ancestral ground of the Nine Netherworld Ghost Monkeys, there was clearly an Undying Demon Soul Third Level Ghost Monkey quietly observing Chu Yang without expression.
For someone to possess such a level of mastery, there was no question that it could only be the tribe leader – the Nine Netherworld Grand Sage.
The Nine Netherworld Grand Sage shot a cold look at Chu Yang but shifted his attention elsewhere as one of his kinsman was handling the issue. He retracted his gaze and shifted it across the void, and it appeared to be in Lin Feng’s direction.
Lin Feng also seemed like he stared back through the void, but the Nine Netherworld Grand Sage’s eyes was clearly a little empty and without focus. He was unable to see Lin Feng’s actions, and neither was he able to detect or register anything – rather, it felt as if he seemed to know there was somebody in that direction that required him to be on guard.
The Nine Netherworld Grand Sage was simply getting ready in silence. He did not dare to send his vision through the void towards Lin Feng’s location, as that would directly trigger Lin Feng’s attention. This was equivalent to antagonizing Lin Feng on his own accord, and Lin Feng would have immediately detected the hostility when he swept the area with his consciousness.
The current situation arose because Lin Feng took special care to watch the battle between Chu Yang and this Nine Netherworld Ghost Monkey. If not, there was a possibility that he would have missed the strange behavior of the Nine Netherworld Grand Sage.
“He may not be on guard against me, but that might seem too much of a coincidence,” Lin Feng thought to himself. “If he’s really warding against me, what’s the reason for it?”
“Just because I’m a human? If he wants to ward off against humans, he might as well sweep the area with his consciousness. This region belongs to the Ancient Ape Demons anyway, and such low-key behavior suggests that he’s trying to cover something up.”
His train of thought stopped here as his eyes closed into a squint and refocused on the path formed by purple light before him.
The speed of extension seemed to be slowing down, and it felt as if the path was reaching its termination point.
Lin Feng watched the path as it gradually grew longer and released Shi Tianhao, Wang Lin and the others with a shake of his sleeve. “Go towards the south. That area belongs to the Nine Netherworld Ghost Monkeys, so you can probe around over there.”
He turned towards Luo Qingwu and laughed, “You can try to understand Chu Yang’s previous sword strike. This will be beneficial towards your mastery of the Heaven-Given Six Unity Sword Mantra in a inter-disciplinary manner.”
Luo Qingwu glanced back at her master with a rather surprised look. “Master, are you referring to the Ethereal Mountain’s way of the sword?”
She had invented the Heaven-Given Six Unity Sword Mantra herself after studying and drawing inspiration from the Great Celestial Way of the Eight Trigrams that belonged to her family. With Lin Feng’s guidance, she developed a new branch of swordplay that was drastically different from the normative ones in the Divine Lands.
This sword technique was extremely unique. The concept of the sword was intricately connected with her Pure Yin Being as well as with her own understanding towards swordplay. She was able to perfect this sword technique as she rose through the levels of mastery, and even though she had only just begun practicing the Four Appearances Heaven Cleaving Script, she had basically invented another abhijna – the last sword of the Heaven-Given Six Unity Sword Mantra was the only part that was yet to be completed.
There was a direct relationship between the difficulty of understanding, the challenge of practicing it and the formidable force of this sword technique.
Lin Feng understood the doubt in Luo Qingwu’s question and smiled, “Of course not.”
Luo Qingwu blinked a little and replied respectfully, “Yes, master.”
